Thursday, August 30, 2018

Bird Rolls Out Tools For Cities

Venice-based on-demand, electric scooter rental startup Bird has rolled out a new set of tools aimed at helping cities better manage the hordes of its scooters on its streets, the company said this week. Bird said its new GovTech Platform lets cities track how their citizens are using its scooters, set up "geofences" where those scooters are not allowed to be ridden or parked, and also access data on trips and usage using an API. According to Bird, the new tools are specifically aimed at helping local governments incorporate and manage e-scooters as part of their transportation infrastructure. Bird says that the tool includes features to track complaints or "pain points" about its scooters in those cities; a way for the local community to report unsafe riding, riding on sidewalks, or poor parking; and ability of cities to request specific warnings be presented to their users before rides, such as "no sidewalk riding".

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