Bird Launches E-Scooter Share Program in Reno
In a regular meeting of the Reno City Council, Electric transportation company Bird, recently announced in a meeting of the Reno City Council that it has partnered with the City of Reno, Nevada to offer a micro-mobility E-Scooter Share Program service to the City’s residents. The Council of Reno hopes that the three-year partnership with Bird will propel the city forward with the City of Reno’s Sustainability & Climate Action Plan. The plan provides a roadmap for improving air quality and combating climate change with one of the elements involving the reduction of traffic and emissions caused by vehicles.
The Exclusive Franchise Agreement between Bird and the City of Reno details that the initial fleet size will include about 250 dockless e-scooters and will be introduced to the Downtown and Midtown areas of Reno, Nevada later this month during an official launch event by the City of Reno and partners. The fleet will phase up over the course of about one month, and the full fleet will be available in June. Bird is responsible for fleet management, including the relocation and removal of vehicles and charging of the vehicles.
“Bird is honored to partner with the City of Reno to launch our eco-friendly scooter program for residents and visitors,” said Brian Buccella, Senior Vice President of Global Policy. “We are committed to working with the community to increase transportation access to all residents as well as helping the city meet their sustainability goals.”
More information about Reno’s E-Scooter Share Program can be found here: Reno.gov/Sustainability.
A Glance at the Past
E-Ride Sharing in Santa Cruz
The City of Santa Cruz previously had a similar e-ride-sharing partnership program for its residents in 2018 but pulled out of the area in 2020. The rideshare program was a partnership with the City of Santa Cruz and Jump Bikes and was wildly successful in terms of ridership numbers. The local JUMP service had an average of 4 trips taken daily per bike over the lifetime of the program. That number exceeds both large and small city bike-share averages, according to a report issued by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). While the program was short-lived, there were over 680,000 trips were taken, covering 1.3 million miles in Santa Cruz in less than two years of operation. This resulted in the reduction of approximately one-third of a million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions by replacing car trips (based on national surveys showing that approximately 29% of bike share trips replace car use).
E-Bike Sharing Returning to Santa Cruz?
The big question most of us are asking at the moment is….when will Santa Cruz get an e-bike/scooter program of its own? While it won’t be Bird, we will possibly have a bike-share program to look forward to hopefully by this summer. According to Claire Gallogly, Transportation Planner for the City of Santa Cruz, contract negotiations are in the works with bicycle sharing company, BCycle. When asked for a comment regarding the status of an e-bike/scooter program in Santa Cruz, Gallogly shared the following:
“The City of Santa Cruz, in partnership with the cities of Capitola and Watsonville, County of Santa Cruz, UCSC, and Cabrillo College, are working to implement a Regional Electric Bike Share Program. The regional bike share team issued an RFP and ranked BCycle the highest among the vendors. The team is currently in negotiations and working on the draft contract. Execution is expected next month for City of Santa Cruz and possibly into June for other jurisdictions. The vendor has indicated a tentative 4-6 month launch schedule, given the need to hire local staff to run the new program and supply chain issues.” - Claire Gallogly, AICP, Transportation Planner, City of Santa Cruz
We are looking forward to seeing bike share return to Santa Cruz!
About the City of Reno
The City of Reno government's mission is creating a community that people are proud to call home. In order to achieve that purpose, the Reno City Council has established six Tier 1 priorities and seven Tier 2 priorities. To learn more about the City of Reno, visit Reno.gov or call 775-334-INFO (4636).
About Bird
Bird is an electric vehicle company dedicated to bringing affordable, environmentally friendly transportation solutions such as e-scooters and e-bikes to communities across the world. Founded in 2017 by transportation pioneer Travis VanderZanden, Bird is rapidly expanding. Today, it provides fleets of shared micro electric vehicles to riders in more than 400 cities globally and makes its products available for purchase at www.bird.co and via leading retailers and distribution partners. Bird partners closely with the cities in which it operates to provide a reliable and affordable transportation option for people who live and work there.