Rentable electric scooters have been available in Dallas since late May, and one of the companies, Bird, has announced statistics from the first weeks of availability.
E-scooters are now permitted in Dallas for the first time since they were banned in September 2020 due to public safety concerns, as reported by The Dallas Express. The decision to bring the scooters back was made at a City Council meeting in June of last year.
During the meeting, new regulations were approved that would permit the scooters to once again be used in the city. The rules included updates to the time of day scooters can be used, speed limits, locations of scooters, and the number of companies allowed to operate.
Riders must be over the age of 16 to ride the scooters and are only permitted to do so between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m., as previously reported by The Dallas Express. Riders are not allowed to go above 20 mph anywhere in the city, and there are specific slow-ride zones in Deep Ellum, the West End, and on the Ronald Kirk Pedestrian Bridge, per Axios.
There are a total of 1,500 scooters throughout the city that are managed by three separate companies, Bird, Lime, and Superpedestrian, per Community Impact. Each company can have 500 scooters at any given time, but 15% must be in designated zones, and they are not permitted to have more than 25% in high-activity areas.
Since electric scooters have returned to the city, Bird has been tracking statistics regarding their usage. The company has found that the average trip length is roughly 18 minutes long, almost 40% longer than the national average, per CultureMap Dallas.
One reason for longer trips is likely that Dallas is more spread out than some other major cities where electric scooters are available.
Bird has also discovered that there have been over 500 rides used to connect people to other forms of public transport. Additionally, nearly half of the rides taken on Bird scooters have taken place in West Dallas, Northeast Downtown, and South Downtown, per CultureMap Dallas.
“We are thrilled to see so many loyal Bird customers in Dallas once again turning to e-scooters for fun, efficient, and environmentally-friendly ways to get around their community,” said Stewart Lyons, president of Bird, in a press release.
“It’s evident that local residents have been waiting for this moment and we look forward to our long-term partnership with the city as we look to replace 225,000+ car trips over the course of our first full year in Dallas.”