The scooters have front and rear lights.
Courtesy Bird
EVERETT — Rentable electric scooters will be back on sidewalks as soon as a few weeks from now.
The City Council approved a contract with Bird, a California-based company that sought to enter the Everett market. Its scooters are colored aluminum and black.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the city did a pilot program with the company Lime to let it rent its green-painted electric scooters around the city.
Bird’s contract is non-exclusive. Lime didn’t respond to a Tribune inquiry on whether or not they’ll come back to Everett someday.
Helmets aren’t attached to the Bird scooters. The scooter company will mail a helmet to anyone who signs up for the app, city economic development director Dan Eernissee said.
People who encounter inappropriately left scooters can call a number to have someone contracting with Bird to remove it, a representative for Bird said last week.
Operating hours would be from 4 a.m. to midnight.
City law requires scooters be ridden on the street when downtown. The top speed is 15 mph, Eernissee said. The scooters feature front and rear lights for visibility.
Independent contractors would handle charging the scooters overnight. The company envisions that these contractors could be local business owners. Their gig would be to charge, move and maintain the scooters.
The scooters weigh about 50 pounds.
“Bird looks forward to working with the City of Everett to launch our environmentally friendly e-scooter program in the coming months. As tourism picks up, expanding to Everett, one of the most populous cities in Washington, was a natural fit,” a spokeswoman for Bird, Julia Latimer, said in an email replying to why Everett.
Bird produces bicycles, too, but is only renting its scooters in Everett.
