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Homewood City Council on Monday filed a 60-day moratorium on Bird's electric scooters operating in the city.
"We will remain open to this idea," said Council Chair Bruce Limbaugh. "We will examine the options and possibilities."
He said council wanted to hear if residents wanted scooters to operate in the city and how they should be regulated.
City attorney Mike Kendrick said regulations must be in place before Bird can offer scooters for rent at Homewood.
The city council action took place a few days after Homewood confiscated about 38 scooters that were illegally placed on the city's sidewalks on August 28th. Fines and court fees totaled $ 371.
Council members criticized Bird for its launch in the city on August 28 without applying for the appropriate licenses and commercial license.
"It was a shock to drive to work and scooters suddenly crowded our sidewalks," said Councilor Barry Smith. She said she saw several children riding scooters, even though the legal age is 18.
Councilman Peter Wright said the unlicensed launch of Bird was "incredibly unprofessional, you can not just be flippant," he added.
"You put the danger in people's hands, and you come back and say," Well, we forgot to get a business license, "Wright said.
Servando Esparza, senior director of government relations for Bird in the Southeast, said Bird has launched in Birmingham and Homewood as part of his university tour to spark interest in cities and students.
"We have been encouraged by the great interest Homewood is getting," he said, adding that Bird had applied for a license to operate. He said that Bird wants to work with the city.
Esparza stated that Bird offers free helmets to runners and that runners can request them via the Bird application. The requested helmets are shipped to runners for $ 1.99, which is the cost of shipping.
Birmingham started capturing Bird scooters on Monday afternoon and at 5pm, Birmingham police had gotten hold of 41 scooters.
Birmingham City Councilor Darrell O. Quinn, who chairs the council's transportation committee, said his office was working on drafting legislation to regulate electric scooters and other small vehicles.
Bird also applied for a corporate license in the Magic City and the company held a first meeting with the city of Birmingham on Monday.
How does the bird work:
According to Bird, bird scooters can be rented via his smartphone app. The application allows users to locate and unlock a scooter. The app also shares safety tips for runners.
A journey costs $ 1 initial plus 15 cents per minute. The bird scooters are calibrated to operate at a maximum speed of 15 miles at the time. A charge lasts about 15 miles.
Every night, a Bird entrepreneur, called a loader, picks up the scooters and takes them home to be billed. The scooters are put back in their "nests", a pre-approved place, before 7 o'clock the next morning.
According to Bird, the company strives to ensure that users travel safely by:
- Require riders to download a driver's license and confirm that they are over 18 years old
- Require all runners to agree to a security agreement.
- Show runners an integrated tutorial on how to ride scooters safely.
- Display safety instructions on each scooter.
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