Bird wants to return to Appleton and offers to fix persistent scooter parking problems

APPLETON — The company behind Bird electric scooters is trying to find a way back into Appleton's good graces after the city stopped negotiations with the business.

Adam Davis, principal government partnership manager for Bird, appeared before Appleton's Municipal Services Committee earlier this week with a renewed pledge to find ways to resolve the city's concerns over safety and the haphazard parking of the scooters in rights of way and on private property.

"We are committed to providing solutions in the hope of being able to continue a partnership in the city of Appleton," Davis said, later acknowledging, "We haven't gotten it right every time."

The solutions, he said, include "the most advanced parking technologies that are out there, which we have and we can showcase to the city."

Davis said Bird has partnered with Google Street View on a geofencing system that can determine, within centimeters, where a scooter can be parked to end a ride. Should the scooter be left in an inappropriate place, the Bird app would not end the ride and would continue to charge the customer.

In cities like Reno, Nevada, the system has proved successful, he said.

Bird's promise receives lukewarm response

Davis' plea received mixed reactions from elected officials.

Common Council members Katie Van Zeeland and Denise Fenton said they were interested in learning more about Bird's capabilities and asked Davis to provide additional information for consideration.

However, council member Sheri Hartzheim said she was ready to cut ties with Bird. While geofencing might help with the parking problems, she said it doesn't resolve other issues, such as intoxicated riders, injury crashes and late payments from Bird.

"How are we to trust that this is going to continue to be something that we don't, as a city, have to worry about, when it's really supposed to be a free service?" Hartzheim said. "It's not working out that way for us. I mean, we're even spending all this time discussing it."

Why did Appleton stop negotiations with Bird?

Bird is an app-based dockless scooter sharing program touted as an eco-friendly alternative to cars. Customers locate the stand-up, battery-powered scooters through the app, rent them by the minute and leave them at their destination point. Riders must be age 18 or older.

Bird deployed its scooters in Appleton in 2021, 2022 and 2023 after signing a series of one-year contracts with the city. Last year, Appleton received 20 cents for every ride to recoup its administrative, educational and enforcement expenses associated with the program. In the first two years, Bird paid the city 10 cents a ride.

Ahead of the 2024 season, Public Works Director Danielle Block broke off negotiations with Bird because the company had filed for bankruptcy protection, had failed to timely pay fees owed to Appleton, hadn't fulfilled its reporting obligations for the 2023 season and hadn't developed a solution to the persistent parking problems.

Bird since has emerged from bankruptcy proceedings under a newly organized private parent company and has paid its 2023 fees, but that wasn't enough to restart negotiations, Block said, and members of the Municipal Services Committee concurred.

That stance was relayed to Bird, which prompted the appearance and plea by Davis.

Bird ridership in Appleton is 'extravagant'

For the six months from May 2023 to October 2023, Bird reported 38,183 rides in Appleton totaling 77,531 miles, according to a review by The Post-Crescent.

That computes to a monthly average of 6,364 rides and 12,922 miles.

"The stats of ridership in Appleton are extravagant compared to other cities of this size," Davis said.

The number of issues and complaints reported during the period totaled 136, an average of 23 a month. Most of them were categorized as "bad parking" or "damaged."

Neenah and Green Bay are among the cities that have welcomed back Bird scooters this year.

Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Bird tells Appleton it can fix persistent scooter parking problems