POCATELLO — A fleet of between 50 and 350 Birds are coming to the Gate City this spring.

These Birds don’t fly, however, but are instead of the two-wheeled variety — electric stand-up scooters from Bird Ride Inc., a micromobility company based in West Hollywood, California, that has brought the vehicles to several Idaho cities over the past few years.

“I think it’s great and love the idea,” Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad said about the incoming fleet of rentable electric scooters. “I think it’s a fantastic addition to our community. It’s about time the city of Pocatello has this mode of transportation. I’m excited.”

The Pocatello City Council unanimously passed a resolution during a meeting at City Hall Thursday to allow Blad to sign a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, between Bird Rides and the city. The document provides a framework for how the devices will be managed and operated within city limits and paves the way for hundreds of dockless electric scooters to be available for local residents to rent from Bird.

Users are able to operate the electric scooters after downloading a mobile application on their phone, creating an account, completing a safety tutorial about proper driving and parking etiquette before being able to see the available scooters on a map of Pocatello in the app. They then scan the scooter to unlock it, take it where they need to go and then hit a button to end the ride. The next user comes along and repeats the process. Users who have previously rented a scooter can locate one on the app and reserve a device up to 30 minutes in advance, too.

“Bird is focused on giving residents of cities an alternative to using a car and we work closely with cities and municipalities to partner to make sure that their residents have access to micromobility options,” a Bird spokesperson told the Idaho State Journal in a Friday email. “In Idaho, Bird currently has operations in Boise, Garden City, Caldwell, Idaho Falls and Rexburg. We’ve seen great adoption in each market and are excited to bring our scooters to Pocatello to be a small piece of the transportation puzzle for residents and students.”

During a Pocatello City Council work session in December, a representative of Bird said the price to unlock a Bird e-scooter is typically $1 and then it costs a certain number of cents per minute for each ride. The representative said the typical cost is about $5 to $6.50 per trip.

To control where the scooters can be used, Bird maps out the areas of town the devices will work using geofencing. If a user attempts to take the scooter into an area that is not allowed, the scooter will slow to a stop and the user must turn around to continue.

According to the MOU between Bird and the city, the scooters “shall be governed by the rules applying to bicycles and are to be ridden on streets, and where available, in bike lanes and bike paths. Stand-up electric scooters are to stay to the right of street lanes and to offer the right of way to bicycles in bike lanes and on bike paths. Users of stand-up electric scooters shall be 18 or older. Users of stand-up electric scooters who violate these provisions may be fined by the city of Pocatello consistent with fines for cyclists.”

Pocatello’s bicycle ordinance doesn’t include any particular regulations, and instead defers to state code. State code allows for the use of bicycles on sidewalks, with some limitations. Pocatello City Attorney Jared Johnson spoke briefly about this section of the MOU when addressing some concerns of Councilwoman Linda Leeuwrik during a clarification meeting held just before Thursday’s regular council meeting. Leeuwrik said she frequently walks the Portneuf Greenway trails and often sees skateboarders, scooters and strollers, and she inquired about whether or not the e-scooters should be ridden solely on the streets or if they can be ridden on paved trails and sidewalks in the city.

In response Johnson said, “Bird expects people not to ride on the sidewalk when there is another option. Idaho code does allow bicycles and motorized assisted devices such as scooters or electric bikes to ride on sidewalks, but per Idaho code they have to do certain things like yield to pedestrians and notify if they are passing. Bird’s recommendation though is that they are not to be ridden on sidewalks when available.”

It remains unclear if users will be permitted to ride the e-scooters on Pocatello sidewalks or if Bird will even include any of the local Greenway trails into its geofencing map upon setup.

While electric scooters provide a new, relatively cool way to get from point A to point B, the added convenience hasn’t come without controversy in some cities in the U.S.

When a different electric scooter company brought about 200 e-scooters to Meridian in 2018, several of the devices were impounded and all of the others were voluntarily removed from the streets following complaints of scooters blocking access to roads and other public areas and thus violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Officials in Boise this past October said the city planned to scale back from three to one electric scooter company, with complaints about where the scooters were being left as a primary catalyst. The city of San Diego, California, filed a lawsuit against Bird in 2021 for similar concerns.

When asked what Bird will do to address traffic concerns in Pocatello, a Bird spokesperson said, “Bird certainly drives more business into downtown areas increasing the foot traffic going to local stores and restaurants, which most communities we operate within are excited about. Each city we operate in has a local point of contact with Bird to ensure we are constantly evolving the program to fit the community’s needs. This is not a static program; it’s a collaborative effort to ensure that Pocatello residents see value in the service.”

Another potential concern is rider safety while using the device. The typical speed for the e-scooters is between 15 and 18 mph, but that speed can be slowed in particular regions of the city. Additionally, the service allows for the creation of special event spaces that prevent the scooter from working or slowing the device down to a particular speed, say for instance for a parade or other special event.

Bird also recommends that all users wear helmets while riding the device and that only one person rides each scooter at a time. Additionally, Bird scooters use something called Safe Start, an in-app checkpoint designed to discourage people from riding under the influence. The app requires people who want to use the device during late night hours to enter a keyword within the app to unlock the device.

Users of Bird’s scooters are encouraged to read the entire user agreement before using the devices, as one attorney in California points out, after a man who was paralyzed in a Bird scooter accident filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and was later met with a letter from Bird stating he owed them $332,000 in legal fees because of Bird’s indemnification policy. Bird later told the ABC affiliate TV station in Los Angeles that it was not suing the injured man, nor did it have any intention of collecting any money from him.

Bird agreed to indemnify the city of Pocatello “against all actions, damages or claims brought against the city of Pocatello arising out of Bird Rides Inc.’s actions, negligence or willful misconduct except that Bird Rides Inc.’s indemnification obligations shall not extend to claims of the City of Pocatello’s negligence or willful misconduct. City of Pocatello expressly acknowledges that in no event shall Bird Rides Inc. be liable for any special, indirect, consequential or punitive damages.”

Blad said he is confident Pocatello won’t have the significant issues experienced by other cities when it comes to where Bird scooters are parked.

“You’re always going to have some people who are going to leave them in weird places,” Blad said. “We recognize that and Bird recognizes that so we’ve built into this MOU that Bird is responsible for retrieving from the Portneuf (River) or anywhere else and doing it in a lawful way. With every city that has these they’re going to run into that kind of an issue, but for the most part we expect people to hop on one of these, take them somewhere and then put them back where they belong.”

Local support staff will be contracted by Bird to locate problematic scooters and get them back in service and will also collect all the scooters when winter approaches, store them and then roll them back out, weather permitting, Bird said.

“Bird will partner with a local entrepreneur called a fleet manager in Pocatello to deliver service,” the Bird spokesperson said. “On average, fleet managers directly employ 1-4 team members each. The fleet manager program ensures that Bird can be additive to the local economy by increasing entrepreneurship in the community. Additionally, Emory (University in Georgia) recently did a study where they concluded that each scooter on the road in a city directly contributed $1,800 per year to the local economy in the form of more spending at local businesses, so Pocatello’s decision to bring scooters to town will increase entrepreneurship as well as keep more money local.”

Leeuwrik noted during the City Council meeting Thursday that this MOU between Bird and the city essentially creates a pilot program through December and includes a clause where either party can opt-out of the agreement with or without cause so long as a 30-day notice is provided.

More information about Pocatello’s upcoming Bird electric scooter launch is expected to be released in the coming months. Both Bird and the city are looking forward to what the future holds.

“We’re very excited to operate in Pocatello and further our mission to give communities access to alternative transportation,” the Bird spokesperson said.