How San Francisco Drove out Scooter Company Bird with Theft and Fines

If you ride an e-scooter on the sidewalk rather than the street or bike lane in San Francisco, a single offense is $500. The city had the highest fine rate out of any city the company operates in. San Francisco make e-scooter related fines five times the rate than the national average. In two months, last summer, there were over 12,000 citations for improper parked e-scooters resulting in $385,000 in fines for Bird. Bird has been fined $1.1 million in city fines alone nice November 2019.
San Francisco was in the top 1% of cities for vehicle theft.
San Francisco has strict parking laws. Residents often complain about scooters parked on the sidewalk.
One study showed that an e-scooter ban in Atlanta increased traffic congestion by 10%. An average 10 minute trip on a scooter can cost less than $5. The main concern regarding e-scooters is accidents. Between 2017 and 2021, there were 120,000 emergency room visits and 68 fatalities.
In 2022, Bird had a $380 million loss versus a $215 million loss in 2021.
Works Cited:
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/bird-e-scooter-pulls-out-of-san-francisco-due-to-city-bureaucracy-and-expensive-fines/