“Please be aware that Bird Rides, its agents, or customers, are not permitted to place property on the sidewalks of the City without obtaining a permit,” Cleveland law director Barbara Langhenry wrote in her letter to Bird. “We believe that you would agree that the placement of unattended, commercial, electric scooters on City sidewalks raises important safety issues that need to be fully explored and properly addressed with the City. Please remove any scooters from the public rights of way, which includes streets and sidewalks, and other public property tonight.”
The letter also asked that the scooters, which are charged overnight, not be reintroduced Saturday. (Throughout the day Saturday, scooters were visible on the Bird app, concentrated downtown.) Langhenry concluded her letter with the warning that unattended scooters on city sidewalks would be subject to removal and impoundment.
Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents downtown and parts of Tremont and Ohio City — areas where most of the 100 scooters were dropped off Friday morning — said he was not in favor of the city’s hasty decision.
Debate over the scooters’ merits has played out on social media, per usual. Those against them are worried that novice riders will operate them improperly and may pose dangers to pedestrians and cyclists. Those in favor note that even the most reckless scooter operator, at max speeds of 15 miles per hour, would do considerably less damage motor vehicles do every day.
In addition to being pretty fun to ride and presenting another alternative mode of transit in the city, the company has created a fund to help pay for the creation of new bike lanes and the maintenance of existing bike lanes in cities where they operate. The fund would pay $1 per day for every scooter in operation.
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2018.
The city wants their part of action. Simple as that.
Scooters only work in areas where few cars (or pedestrians) are present.
Scooters not allowed but Illegal dirt bikes and 4 wheelers riding on the streets in Cleveland causing accidents A-OK.
Hey maybe Frank Jackson will build a Bird track so that we can “safely” use the scooters. Instead of worrying about 15mph scooters, maybe the administration should worry about the packs of roaming dirt bikers that were terrorizing people on the streets last night?
https://www.change.org/p/city-of-cleveland-allow-bird-scooters-to-operate-in-cleveland
Took one to. Great ride! Only problem is the terrible streets in Cleveland
All this hoo-ha about scooters, when the dirt bikers are still roaming around?
And even venturing into the suburbs now? Whose city is this, anyway?
And whose streets? OUR streets!
It’s greed on the part of the city. Plain and simple.
A woman died this weekend after being struck by a drunk driver while riding one of these scooters. There’s a good learning experience for Kerry Mac and the dopes running Cleveland.
Get your shit straight: A woman died this weekend while riding one of these scooters,..after being struck by a punk who was snorting heroin. Keep the scooters–ban the 19-year-old junkies.