Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
Bird
Major micromobility comapnies and lesser known competitors are stating their interest to take part in a New York City e-scooter pilot program slated for Spring 2021.
Smart Cities Dive
The transportation industry has been promising high-tech innovations for years, and has attracted a lot of big time investment dollars along the way. But it looks like some of them are struggling during the pandemic anyway.
The Verge
Months after ending a program to help cities fund transportation infrastructure improvements, a company official says city governments were misusing the funds.
Smart Cities Dive
Companies are looking to generate profits, but customers have come to expect low-cost, subsidized travel and raising prices will prove challenging.
Time
Both Bird and Lime have organized boards of experts to conduct research and advise the companies as their micromobility ventures grow.
CityLab
Bird, a brand synonymous with electric scooters, recently unveiled a new electric bike.
TechCrunch
Regulations for the operation of electric scooter share in Columbus, Ohio require companies to distribute scooter in low-income neighborhoods. The companies haven't been living up to their part of the deal.
The Columbus Dispatch
A lawsuit by Bird and Lime against the company Scooter Removal highlights the difficult challenges required to reconcile the private interests of new mobility companies with the access to the public realm on which they depend.
Jalopnik
A bill that would toss the helmet requirement for adult e- scooter riders and allow them to ride on roads where the speed limit is 35 mph, up from the current limit of 25 mph, is on Governor Jerry Brown's desk. He has until Sept. 30 to decide.
San Francisco Chronicle
Dockless electric scooters and bikes are welcome on the streets of Baltimore, as long as they follow a few rules. In related news, the municipal bike share system Baltimore Bike Share has ceased operations.
The Baltimore Sun
Bird and Lime launched their "Day Without A Scooter" protest this week.
Santa Monica Daily Press
The Willamette Week put out a call for tips about electric scooter users acting badly. They got an earful of the unexpected.
Willamette Week
The narrative of electric scooter users as affluent, entitled, and "tech bro-y" does not reflect the demographics of fans of the new mobility technology, according to a new study. Electric scooters are actually very popular.
Wired
Bird announced its One Bird program earlier this month.
Smart Cities Dive
The fast-rising scooter companies recently hauled in big investment dollars. Lime's investment comes by way of Uber.
CNN Tech
Examples like Elon Musk's subway plan in Chicago, app-driven electric scooters littering sidewalks, and Amazon's general preponderance may point to a tech-dominated urban future. But are localities ceding too much power to the private sector?
The New York Times
Tony Dutzik, senior policy analyst with the Frontier Group, presents three environmental reasons to support shared bikes and scooters, and why cities that have adopted climate plans should accommodate these small, clean, shared vehicles.
Frontier Group
Two major scooter companies operating in Miami have ceased operations in the city, at least for now.
Miami Herald
Electric scooters need maintenance and charges, so Bird is using the gig economy to make sure its scooters keep scooting.
Curbed
Entitled tech bros! Disrupted sidewalks! Mass impound sweeps! Social media convulsions!
TechCrunch
