Skip to main content

Bird enables reports of poorly parked and damaged e-scooters

Bird is to roll out an app feature which allows people to report poorly parked or damaged electric scooters to the company. It is an attempt to solve one of the biggest bugbears surrounding the deployment of scooters and dockless bikes – the issue of what happens when users abandon or abuse the vehicles. Bird says the app’s new ‘community mode’ will improve parking and safety in the cities where it operates, such as Portland and Salt Lake City. The company will use reports to reposition poorly parked e-
November 15, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Bird is to roll out an app feature which allows people to report poorly parked or damaged electric scooters to the company.


It is an attempt to solve one of the biggest bugbears surrounding the deployment of scooters and dockless bikes – the issue of what happens when users abandon or abuse the vehicles.

Bird says the app’s new ‘community mode’ will improve parking and safety in the cities where it operates, such as Portland and Salt Lake City.

The company will use reports to reposition poorly parked e-scooters and make sure damaged models are no longer available for riding. Also, the company will notify mechanics to remove the damaged vehicles from the road to be repaired.

Travis VanderZanden, CEO of Bird, says the company wants to work with communities to help alleviate problems associated with congestion and carbon emissions.

"Community mode gives any individual the power to engage with Bird in real time so that we can work together on making our streets safer and people-friendly,” VanderZanden adds.

Bird has already established a global %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 36382 0 link-external safety advisory board false /categories/utc/news/bird-establishes-board-to-help-increase-safety-for-e-scooter-riders/ false false%> to improve safety for its e-scooter riders.

In the UK, a similar issue has emerged in London. Speaking to ITS International, Adam Warnes, vice president of UK operations at Passport, says the rise of %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 36821 0 link-external dockless cycles false /categories/utc/news/passport-brings-traffic-management-platform-to-the-uk/ false false%> are causing problems for councils.

“Dockless bikes came in overnight and have created a huge amount of problems for local authorities with bikes being dumped and with no one having an understanding of usage, ownership or licensing,” Warnes adds.

Related Content

  • ITS America free webinar series: Connected vehicles and the environment
    December 7, 2012
    The third webinar of the AERIS autumn/winter 2012-2013 webinar series will take place on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 at 1:00 pm EST. The webinar will provide an overview of the draft concept of operations for the dynamic low emissions zones transformative concept. As part of the AERIS program's efforts to develop ways in which real-time transportation system data could improve the operation of the surface transportation network, six transformative concepts, or bundles of applications, were identified. Each
  • ITS associations highlight road safety, video analysis, new regulations
    December 19, 2016
    ITS Australia has welcomed the country's National Transport Commission's roadmap of regulatory reform for automated vehicles, Ertico-ITS Europe has been appointed as the work-package leader for dissemination, exploitation and standardisation for the EU’s Cloud LSVA, French opportunities in the Italian ITS market formed the theme of ITS France’s first international breakfast meeting, TTS Italia vice president Diego Galletta highlighted the role of new technology solutions, Chris Philip, ITS Canada’s new boar
  • European Transport Conference 2017 - call for papers
    December 22, 2016
    The European Transport Conference (ETC), which takes place 4-6 October 2017 in Barcelona, is inviting abstracts for papers on: Resilience of cities - security, safety and the effects of weather; Equity in transport; Disruptive technologies; Mobility as a Service; How to get from innovative ideas to implementation in the real world - lessons to be learnt from innovation Contributors are particularly encouraged to offer abstracts under heading including: Modelling the above; Skills and resourc
  • Fostering ITS Policy and the IRF manifesto
    November 26, 2012
    Fostering ITS Policy, an international workshop jointly organised by TTS Italia (National Association for Telematics for Transport and Safety) and the IRF Policy Committee on ITS, aims to bring together key partners from the public, private and academic sectors in Italy to discuss ITS policy frameworks and developments in ITS university education. The workshop takes place as part of the New World Conference The New World II, the ITS for mobility management convention in Bologna on 5 December 2012 at Savoia