The Birds have returned. The electric Bird scooters, that is. They landed in Providence unannounced this summer, only to disappear after a few weeks. Now they’re back, but this time under city regulation.
The scooters were dropped off without warning in cities across the country, a tactic that angered some residents and officials in places like Cambridge, where the scooters were tossed out. In Providence, city officials chose to create rules for the motorized scooter-sharing company.
Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza said the new regulations include a requirement that scooters be distributed across the city.
“Making sure that they’re not all, concentrated in one place,” said Elorza. “This divides the city into separate districts, and it requires that at least ten percent of all of the scooters are in each district at the beginning of each day.”
Providence will receive about $30,000 from fees, to help offset any cost from the program, Elorza said.
“So for example in other cities, people have trashed these scooters, and city employees have to come in and pull them out of rivers or take them out of trash cans,” said Elorza. “So we want to make sure whatever fees we’re collecting from them at least cover our costs.”
Providence has also approved scooters from a second company, Lime. City officials estimated that there are now roughly 300 scooters in the city.
The scooters can be unlocked and used via a cell phone app. Providence also recently welcomed its first bike-sharing program.
