I used to charge Bird scooters. This is why they'll be good for Texarkana

An e-scooter zips along a Washington, D.C., street. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Salwan Georges.
An e-scooter zips along a Washington, D.C., street. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Salwan Georges.

The recent news that Bird scooters will be flocking into Texarkana has created quite a stir.

The scooters are controversial, to say the least. Following a weekend of debate and questions on the Gazette's Facebook, I would like to try and provide some insight from someone who has contracted with the mobile apparatus company.

First and foremost, this is a good thing for the Twin Cities. In 2018, Bird dropped thousands of scooters in the Oklahoma City metro area. My wife and I were living there at the time, and like any good reporter, I was intrigued by this new method of transportation. I attended a meeting of chargers – folks tasked with retrieving the scooters at the end of the day and supplying them with power – in Norman, Oklahoma, to get the scoop. What I found was interesting, but also generally positive.

Most importantly, the scooters create contract job opportunities. Chargers are tasked with picking up the scooters at the end of day, usually 9 p.m., charging them, and deploying them the next day at designated locations called nests. This is all done through a downloadable app that was intuitive and easy to use in 2018, and no doubt is even better today.

Each charger is awarded a daily bank deposit for successfully charging and returning the conveyances. Payment amount is based on battery life per scooter and length of time since it was last charged. For instance, a Bird that has 70 percent battery will yield a fee of $5 if successfully charged and redeployed. Maximum payout is $20, incentivizing chargers to go find long-missing fliers. And the company provides contractors with the chargers.

The arrangement makes the scooters hard to steal. If a scooter is taken into a residence and remains in that location for a few days, it does something that makes it incredibly frustrating to live with as its battery drains: It squawks. And once it starts squawking, it becomes unusable until it is charged and redeployed. It's a pretty neat feature from an anti-theft standpoint. And those that are stolen are almost universally stuck back out on the street due to the irritation they cause the thief. They then become high-bounty priorities.

Now there is the safety issue, and that has been discussed in multiple cities that have Birds or any of their competitors. They travel up to 18 mph, so there is a degree of "rider beware" associated with using them. Riders are required to be at least 18 years old, which is a no-brainer, but ultimately someone will be injured.

The company attempts to mitigate some of the danger by forcing riders to enter a keyword in the app between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., which is geared toward determining cognitive impairment. However, they're also pretty hard to find once they become harvestable at 9 p.m. Chargers will snag them quickly, because it tends to be a low-cost, quick way of making an average of between $30 and $50 a day.

So, the question becomes whether that risk is worth it, and as is the case with most things in life, the answer is, 'We'll see.'

I have never seen Bird or its competitors deployed in a community of our size. It will be an interesting experiment. It is important to note that we do have a lack of sidewalks in the Twin Cities, and these transports aren't geographically restricted in travel. Inevitably scooters will end up in Fouke, Ashdown and Hooks. It's also going to be a bit daunting if someone is cruising down Richmond Road at 5 p.m. on a Bird.

But, I do think this will ultimately be a good thing for our community. There's a lot of excitement surrounding the projected August deployment. I'm proud of both cities for taking this leap, and our residents should reward both municipalities by being mature enough to handle the responsibility.

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