The scooter rental business Bird said in a tweet from a few weeks ago that it would begin putting its electric scooters on pavements in Seattle, Washington. This belonged to an initiative by the City of Seattle to choose scooter operators that they think would do a good and safe job in the city .
One more day, one more launch
We’re pleased to declare that we have successfully launched in the @CityofSeattle ! Here’s to choosing transportation alternatives that are safe, economical, and environmentally beneficial. pic.twitter.com/sPDmVgG2Lb
Bird June 29, 2022 (@BirdRide)
We are happy to welcome Bird in addition to saying goodbye to Lime and LINK (by Superpedestrian). Seattle DOT made this statement in a post announcing the choice. Bird has a proven commitment to sustainability and safety and operates in more than 400 cities. They are bringing their third generation of scooters, which are safer to ride and have longer battery lives than their previous versions, to Seattle.
Seattle claimed that it selected applicants based on their ideas’ dedication to safety, community participation, and ongoing improvement, as well as taking other users of the streets, sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails into account. Although Wheels and Spin were not selected for the project, the city made an effort to be cordial and expressed its gratitude for the service the company offered from 2020 to 2022.
They are able to place up to 2,000 scooters thanks to the birds permit.
WHY SEATTLE CAME UP WITH BIRD It all boils down to Birds’ efforts to increase security, make things more accessible, and aid in parking.
The newest scooter from Bird has the longest and most stable foot board on the market, auto emergency braking, a beginner mode for novice riders, and new shock-absorbing tires to increase safety. Seattle DOT appears to have been sufficiently impressed to pick them out of all of these options.
The accessibility rating provided by Bird is alternative service for disabled people who cant ride the scooters . Instead of relying on a clunky folding wheelchair or other bulky items that are difficult to transport on a plane or bus, anyone may now enjoy clean micromobility directly inside the Bird app.
Lastly, Bird employs a system they refer to as the Bird Visual Parking System (VPS). When a consumer is finished with a ride, VPS requests that they first scan the scooters’ QR code and then use Google augmented reality to scan the surrounding area. The user will then be able to determine with certainty, down to the centimeter level, whether they have the scooter in the proper location.
According to Justin Balthrop, Chief Technology Officer at Bird, “The new ARCore Geospatial API from Google is an incredible game changer for micromobility and allows us to give cities a first-of-its-kind Visual Parking System that’s unrivaled in terms of accuracy and scalability.” Thanks to Google’s extensive worldwide data and technology, we were able to provide proper parking—the number one requirement of cities—in a way that had never been feasible before. We were also able to achieve this at scale in cities all over the world.
This prevents scooters from polluting the sidewalk and endangering individuals who could trip over them when users abide by the regulations (they receive a fee if they break them). Additionally, it prevents obstructions from blocking pedestrians, delivery robots, and people with disabilities from using the sidewalk.
Of course, Bird isn’t the only business taking precautions to ensure the safety of shared micromobility, but this does offer us an idea of what communities and providers are doing to benefit from it without creating issues.
A close-up of Birds’ newest scooter is the featured image. Bird contributed the picture.
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