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The takeover.
A few weeks ago I walked out my front door to find, what I thought, was an abandoned electric scooter sitting smack in the middle of the sidewalk. Odd. Then, between my house and the local Starbucks I passed several more of these scooters with LARGE “Bird” logos on them. It was like it happened overnight. “$1 to ride” it has advertised on the scooter, so I downloaded the app, and to my surprise a FLOCK of Birds had covered LA. Within 24 hours I had convinced my girlfriend to Bird to date night.
Here’s the rules:
- $1 to start
- 15 cents a minute to ride
- Gotta wear a helmet
- Obey traffic laws
- Park it where it doesn’t obstruct sidewalks, roads, driveways, etc.
You can also get paid to charge a Bird overnight – between $5 and $20. The company will send “bird hunters” a charging kit. Hunters are given the locations of “nests” where charged Birds are dropped off in the morning.
The Company
In 2017, Travis VanderZanden, a former Uber and Lyft executive launched Bird – a shared, motorized scooter company that if you’ve encountered, you either love or hate with deep fervor. I, personally, love to ride them, but find others on them annoying as all hell. Hypocrisy at its best. Regardless…VanderZanden, through several rounds of financing, and attracting the likes of Ashton Kutcher, has found himself at the helm of a company currently valued at $2Billion.
My experience.
The influence of Uber is very clear, and the interface feels very similar. It uses your location to show you the closest Birds, informing you of their charge level as well. You add in your credit card info, scan the barcode of the Bird when you arrive to unlock it, and after 3 quick pushes, you’re off. When you’re done, put the kickstand down, lock it, and take a quick pic of it to show it’s off the sidewalk, etc. Credit card billed.
The first week I had the app I probably Bird’d half a dozen times to meet up with people for coffee, lunch, etc. Using them in a bike lane is super easy, and surprisingly cars respected me when in them. However…when no bike lane is present – it’s sketch af, and admittedly I revert to the sidewalk for safety.
As you can see, my hypocrisy leaves me very conflicted. Birds have taken over LA, and I’ve nearly been hit several times by kids recklessly steering them. Users whiz down streets, flocks ride together clogging up traffic, and irresponsible users ditch them on sidewalks, people vandalize them, etc.
But they are so fun and convenient to use, and Bird knows that. And they’re launching in more and more cities.
Uber lobbying style.
INC has a great article that goes into more detail, but the long and short of it is VanderZanden learned an immense amount of knowledge while at Uber and Lyft, one key factor being the importance of legislation protecting the expansion of ride-sharing.
The lessons learned there have been employed at Bird as well – hire lobbyist, find loopholes, bombard city council with strong tactics to get legislation in place before a ban can be pushed/orchestrated by angry citizens.
Case in point…as noted in the INC article
In California, Bird’s lobbyist approached Assemblyman Heath Flora this spring to sponsor a bill, AB2989, which would make it legal to drive e-scooters on the sidewalk when there isn’t a bike lane available, according to Lucas Webster, a Flora aide.
So far, the lobbying push has worked in most areas except Beverly Hills. Their city council just put into place a ban on shared motorized scooters and the like. No ban on personally owned ones, but rather on those participating in a shared capacity.
If Uber and Lyft are any indication of how this will go for Bird and other e-scooter companies, Beverly Hills will be the exception, not the rule.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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