A Bird scooter is parked Friday outside the Dry Town Tap Station on Main Street in Monmouth.
The subject of an electric-scooter sharing program comes before the Albany Council again next week. The council heard about the idea on Feb. 23, and during its regular meeting on March 9, it will consider an agreement to get the program launched.
What’s on the agenda is a “memorandum of understanding” between the city and Bird Rides Inc., the California-based company that operates programs like this in many cities in the U.S. and abroad.
The agreement would “permit” the company to offer its stand-up electric scooter sharing system within the Albany city limits, and it spells out details.
As a company representative told the council last month, Bird Rides plans to deploy between 50 and 100 of its scooters in town. Users would find the vehicles by using an app they must download on their phones. Riders would use the app to pay for rides as well.
Riders have to be at least 18 and must follow the same traffic laws as people on bicycles. Scooters may be used on streets, bike lanes and bike paths. The agreement says they will be available to rent from 4 a.m. to midnight.
Bird says it will give the city data “as necessary to assist with monitoring program usage.”
The agreement says the company will indemnify the city from all claims for damages except — and this may raise eyebrows — if the loss or damage was caused by the city’s “negligent construction or maintenance of public infrastructure.” (The wheels of those scooters are small, and who’s liable if a rider fails to avoid one of Albany’s deeper potholes and flies over the handlebar?)
In Polk County, Monmouth approved use of Bird scooters last July. I drove there Friday to see if I could find any scooters.
I found two, parked on the sidewalk on Main Street. I didn’t try riding one because while I had just downloaded the Bird app, I don’t think I did it right and couldn’t tell whether it worked.
It apparently worked in one way. Some time later I got an email from Bird saying they had charged the card number I had provided, and I now was entitled to $20 worth of rides.
I guess I’ll use that credit when the scooters are available on Albany streets. (hh)
My main concern is the tendency for e-scooters to show up in canals, lakes and rivers. Our city should insist that every scooter has a geo-tag that alerts the company if the e-scooter is any of our waterways and action taken by Bird workers to remove it within 24 hrs. It should not be anyone else’s responsibility to notify the company to come get it, or have to fish in out themselves. A worker fished out 15 scooters from the River Seine just in that one day. I imagine several will find their watery graves in Periwinkle Creek.
I did an internet search and found several governments struggling with e-scooter issues and pretty heated complaints from their residents and businesses. I’m not sure we want Bird in our town after seeing what has happened in other places.
The company says the scooters have an anti-theft gizmo, so if one is thrown in the creek their local operator would know and retrieve it.
Let them try it. The market will decide.
For the second time I agree with Bob. I must be going senile.
Really don’t need them, walking is good for the heart and Healthy. Albany is not a big City..
So my vote would be no Thank You
What if a rider gets hurt or hit by a Vehicle and is severely injured? Who responsible for injuries??
I wish you had tried riding it Hasso. I would be inerested to know what it was like and if balance was an iissue. Thank you for the update, it will be interesting to see if it works out well and hope for the best.
I probably should have obeyed the “Mind your own business” light flashing on my computer because, as much as I would like to, I won’t be able to ride one of those scooters. So here goes.
Initially I surmised that Bird Rides, Inc went to the city council to construct some head-winds for any competition that might try to come in to Albany. Now it seems that the liability exclusion they are asking for is a big enough hole to drive a MoPed through. If the city accepts that its Bike and Pedestrian Commission may want to redirect their boulevard funds to bike lane and trail maintenance.