How Scooters (and the Data They Collect) Can Transform Cities

To date, more than 2 million people have rented a Bird scooter and zipped along to their destination. Perhaps you've seen them alongside rival contraptions, leaning up against trees and buildings or dumped in the middle of the sidewalk as if their occupants had been spirited away like an extra from The Leftovers.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Bird was founded in 2017 by Travis VanderZanden, a former exec for Uber and Lyft, both of which are now eyeing the scooter market. According to Bloomberg, it has secured a reported $418 million in funding for an estimated $2 billion valuation.

Bird scooters are strategically placed where Generation Z and millennials hang out: the beach; college campuses; near light rail and subway stations. They're now available in 100 US cities, and Bird has hired key execs for a team in Europe to jumpstart operations there.

Jump On and Ride

Hitting the streets on a Bird scooter is simple: Download the app, activate the Bird via your phone, and go. It costs $1 per trip, plus 15 cents a minute. The experience? Gliding gloriously at top speeds of 15mph—way faster, and smoother, than a skateboard. When you reach your destination, dismount. The scooter automatically powers down, you lock it and then it's ready for the next rider.

Officially, riders are meant to wear helmets; very few do, despite the threat of a fine. As a result, accident reports are increasing; Cedars-Sinai just released an injury prevention guide written by hospital staff. Bird offers free helmets to all riders who request one and has sent out more than 50,000 to date, a spokesperson confirmed.

But the market is getting crowded. Bird has many competitors—Spin, Skip, Hopr, Ridecell, Lime. The volume of dockless electric scooters on the streets is growing fast—and municipalities and residents are pushing back.

Santa Monica fined Bird $300,000 in February for operating without a license, which the scooter company has since obtained. Proposals to corral these scooters include geo-fencing, so scooters are location-aware and slow down in protected areas, as well as docking areas. As a result, Bird has now hired lobbyists.

The Bigger Picture

If you think this is just about cute and quirky electric scooters, you're wrong. Scooters are a vital element in the move toward smart cities and sentient automation. Bird also says it has offset 12.7 million pounds of CO2, had those been car trips instead.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the number of electric vehicles on the road globally jumped by 54 percent in 2017 to more than 3 million, and it predicts that will rise to 220 million by 2030. In the US, about 280,000 electric cars were sold in 2017, up from 160,000 in 2016, IEA says.

Under 2016's Measure M, residents in Los Angeles voted to support better public transportation—building new stations and extending subterranean/overland clean power rail lines—which will be implemented as part of the city's $6.6 billion FY18-19 budget.

Bird and other scooter firms are part of this societal shift, providing a cost-effective and tech-enabled experience. Unlike ride-sharing, which has replaced car ownership for many urban dwellers, Bird is about local—or "the last mile"—transportation.

Due to the burden of student debt, shaky employment prospects, and lack of access to mortgages, young people are not buying homes like their parents. That's bad news for mortgage lenders, but great news for property developers snapping up former industrial stock and creating high-margin, multipurpose entertainment/loft rental entities.

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According to Ashley Z. Hand, former Transportation Fellow and mobility expert, 200 square miles is dedicated to parking in Los Angeles. Inside purpose-built structures, each space is worth $35,000 per year. Los Angeles, currently in the midst of a homelessness crisis, is looking to repurpose that valuable land.

Increased usage of scooters could lead to the repurposing of expensive, centrally located parking structures into live/work and retail/rental blended housing stock, while disrupting the industries that grew up around car ownership.

Data Science Rules

These are all powerful market-driven arguments. But the real potential, when assessing the disruptive impact of scooter companies, is the data they collect.

By recording rides via GPS and revenue/time/distance via the app, Bird is gathering vital usage patterns on how a city is mapped. Cities, developers, and businesses are no doubt willing to pay for info that will help them make data-driven city planning decisions.

Plus, future versions of the electric scooter might well be integrated with voice-activated, AI-powered assistants. These would welcome you aboard and make suggestions based on your preferences, location patterns, and capacity level data from local venue management APIs. Lime already has plans to offer turn-by-turn navigation and warnings about inclement weather on its scooters' displays.

Imagine hopping on a future scooter and hearing: "There's an amazing new band playing at The Roxy tonight. You have enough loyalty points to get an all-access pass—shall I take you there?"

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