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Birmingham began capturing Bird scooters on Monday afternoon, nearly two weeks after the city asked the carpool company to remove the illegal vehicles.
Dozens of non-anchored electric scooters landed in the Southside and Red Mountain communities in Birmingham on August 28th. Homewood was also flooded with scooters the same day. The scooters are located and rented via the Bird app.
"Birmingham welcomes innovation and innovators, but to create an environment conducive to creativity and progress, companies must follow processes that promote equity," said Rick Journey, spokesman for Birmingham. "In this case, a competing company has submitted a thoughtful proposal to municipal officials.We can not let another company operate without authorization when a competitor uses the appropriate channels to enter our market." free enterprise rely on an equal chance for every firm competitor to succeed and allowing Bird to continue in its current form would violate this basic tenet. "
To illegally place scooters on the sidewalks of the city of Birmingham, Bird can charge up to $ 500 per day for each scooter. The city did not say how much the seizure and storage of scooters could be costly to Bird.
Birmingham Police spokesman Sgt. Johnny Williams said 41 scooters were impounded at the end of Monday afternoon.
"We gave the company a deadline to comply with the notification received from the Legal Department of the City of Birmingham," he said in an email. "We observed that the scooters were still located in different locations around the city and were still being used by citizens.We confirmed through the BPD Business Compliance Unit that Bird owners did not get scooters from public areas. "
Homewood has chosen to remove and impound nearly 38 city sidewalk scooters this week, the police sergeant said. John Carr. Bird was to pick them up and receive a quote for doing business without a permit on Friday. Fines and court fees for the quote total $ 371.
While Bird has refused to publish data on attendance in Birmingham, scooter drivers can often be seen at Avondale, Lakeview, downtown and at the University of Alabama on the Birmingham campus.
Ben Stephens said he drove Bird scooters several times when they arrived in Birmingham. He even traveled about a kilometer and a half from home to work in Lakeview.
"I really think they're great," he said. "Every time I go out, I ride them."
Stephens said that he sometimes preferred not to drive and rent a scooter to get to work is cheaper than taking an Uber. The scooter costs $ 2 while an Uber costs at least $ 6.
John Lasater said he never went abroad to Nashville where he lives, but he drove scooters while visiting Birmingham for work. He said that it was convenient to ride a scooter from his hotel in the UAB area to work in Lakeview rather than take an Uber.
On August 29, Birmingham issued a letter of formal notice from Bird Rides Inc. to inform the company that it was violating the city's law by placing scooters on city sidewalks without a permit.
The letter stated that if Bird Rides did not "immediately remove abandoned objects on the sidewalks of the city, the city would remove them and confiscate them for safekeeping purposes, subject to applicable fees, including storage fees."
Bird applied for a business license with the city.
On Thursday, Bird sent an email to all Birmingham users asking them to send an email to their city representative to tell them they were supporting Bird.
"The city of Birmingham is discussing the use of non-anchored scooters in the city, and with your support, we hope to continue to offer you an affordable, sustainable and convenient alternative to travel to Birmingham by car" e-mail.
"Please send a quick e-mail to your representatives and let them know that you support Bird in Birmingham as an affordable and environmentally friendly way of getting around the city without having to worry about traffic or parking."
On Friday morning, Birmingham City Councilman, Darrell O. Quinn, who chairs the council's transportation committee, said he had received about 170 emails from Bird's users since 4 pm . Thursday.
"I received an email every 5 to 10 seconds for a little while," he said.
O & # 39; Quinn said that Bird's tactic had failed. "The mayor's office was inclined to be indulgent and we were spammed with e-mails, which made the situation worse where they needed to react," he said.
"The only good thing for us to do is ask Bird to follow the rules," said O & # 39; Quinn. "We literally have thousands of businesses in the city of Birmingham that have followed the rules that have passed the licenses and permits necessary to operate, and for us to turn a blind eye to Bird is totally unfair to all those thousands of businesses that have tried to be good citizens. "
O & # 39; Quinn said his office was actively working on drafting laws to regulate electric scooters and similar modes of transportation.
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