Bird pulls electric scooters from Indianapolis streets

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Bird Rides is pulling its electric scooters from Indianapolis streets, following the lead of another provider and amid the concerns of city officials of the vehicles’ safety. 

Brandi Pahl, chief communications officer for the city, said Thursday it was not aware that Bird was pulling its scooters from the streets.

City officials sent cease-and-desist letters to Bird and Lime as they tried to create a law to regulate the scooters and address safety concerns. Pahl said in June that the City-County Council could approve such a process as early as July 16. 

Bird, which is based in Santa Monica, California, issued this statement Thursday afternoon:

“We are glad to be working with Indianapolis to build a framework that permits affordable transportation options that help the city reach its goals of getting cars off the road and reducing emissions. While this work is underway, we have agreed to remove our scooters from the streets of Indianapolis and started removing vehicles on Wednesday, 7/11. We hope the ordinance and its resulting permit process is completed as soon as possible so we can get back to helping people easily get around Indianapolis.”

A week ago, the other scooter provider, Lime, pulled its scooters from Indianapolis streets after the city issued it a cease-and-desist order on July 3. Lime is based in San Mateo, California.

Bird was the first to launch in the city in mid-May. It ignored the city’s cease-and-desist order, issued June 19, three days after the company started operations in Indianapolis, to stop operating for 30 days.