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Although cities continue to limit the number of scooters despite strong customer demand, startups are trying to change the rules with workarounds, such as direct rental to your home.
The company plans to launch the day rental service in some of the 70 US cities in which it already operates by the minute. Daily prices have not been announced.
In general, cities have limited scooter companies to deploy only several hundred scooters. Bird and its competitors have asked cities to allow larger fleets but have seen little change.
However, direct rentals could open the floodgates for as many scooters and e-bikes as people want to rent.
That's because Bird thinks a personal rental service should work differently. The maximum number of scooters should not apply there, says the company. Bird can be limited to 300 shared scooters in one city, but it can deliver hundreds or even thousands of scooters to customers' doors, depending on demand.
"This should not be considered otherwise than if you decide to rent a Hertz car for rent for a day," said David Estrada, Public Policy Officer at Bird, CNN Business. "We do not think that, from this point of view, cities would really be motivated to want to regulate them differently from cars."
It is unclear how municipal governments will respond to this argument. CNN Business has contacted the governments of 12 cities where Bird operates. Most refused to say if Bird Delivery scooters would be counted in their caps. But three cities – Santa Monica, California; Portland, Oregon; and Baltimore, Maryland – said that personal rentals would count for their scooter limit. In addition, Denver has confirmed direct rentals are not allowed under his pilot.
Bird may not be alone for long in challenging the limits of regulation. Jump, the Uber brand for sharing electric bikes and scooters, is exploring a similar service called Jump +, which would rent electric bikes directly to consumers, every week. Uber would not like to say he's expecting to these vehicles must be capped by the municipal regulations in force.
These programs could create new tensions between startups and governments, who have worried about scooters on sidewalks or inappropriate parking on sidewalks. Security is another critical problem. Scooter companies have called on cities to build safer infrastructure, such as protected bike lanes, so cars and scooters do not mix. Last month in Washington DC, a man driving a scooter was hit and killed by an SUV. According to local reports, a Cleveland woman on a scooter was killed after being hit by a motorist in August.
Related: cities give scooters a second chance
Bird has announced the launch of a rental service, as scooter drop-off points have typically been installed in city centers, rendering this service inaccessible to commuters further away.
Sure 400 mayors, who call themselves "climate mayors", have been working for years to build political will for climate change policies.
But for Bird, the promises have made little progress. "In our interactions with cities, we do not see them treating the climate crisis as a crisis," said Estrada. "What surprised us most is the number of cities interested in limiting the number of their fleets. In In some cities, this will not help them achieve their climate goals. "
Climate mayors have not responded to a request for comment.
According to Meredith Hankins, researcher in law and environmental policy at UCLA Law School, cities do not grasp the opportunity to modify the infrastructure to remove cars from the roads, because of their impact huge on climate change. Roads that are more welcoming to pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists will promote this change.
"These changes can be implemented in the next 15 months," said Hankins, who noted that he sometimes lacked political will. In Los Angeles, multiple "road plans" – which convert an automobile lane into a bike lane and a parking lot – were abandoned due to a brutal reaction.
But the sharing of scooters and e-bikes is so recent a novelty that there is a lack of research on their impact. According to Aseem Prakash, founding director of the Center for Environmental Politics at the University of Washington, the climate is beneficial if scooters replace Uber or Lyft car trips, but not if people are moving away from public transit .
"We rush into a technology without really thinking about it," Prakash said. "How do scooters affect my propensity to use my own car, Uber or Lyft, or to use public transport? These questions are not asked."
Although many cities can afford to allow more scooters on the streets, some cities such as Baltimore have said they could loosen their caps after the pilot projects end. But how daily rentals fit into this future is unknown for the moment.
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