Bird is Coming to Town: The approval of Bird Scooters in Prairie Village has caused differing opinions within the community

The Prairie Village City Council approved the implementation of Bird electric scooters to come to the city during a Council Meeting on Sept. 7. Soon, it may be possible that the scooters will be found propped up on street corners on your drive to school.

The council evenly split the vote in a 6-6 tie, with Mayor Eric Mikkelson breaking the tie in favor. Though Ward 3 City Councilwoman Bonnie Limbird is not sure when they will be spotted around the city, she says there will be about 100 scooters stationed in total.

There will be no exchange of money between the city and Bird Rides. Since riders pay for their individual course, adding more scooters from their existing spots in the Plaza and Downtown Kansas City would be ideal for both the company and the city, according to Limbird.

“Bird Scooters are all over Kansas City, Mo. and they’re slowly creeping their way over the state line and into Johnson Country,” Limbird said. “We already see them on corners and in shopping areas occasionally.”

According to the varying opinions of the community, there are both pros and cons to Bird’s eco-friendly mode of transportation coming to the city, which is evident in the evenly-split vote.

Many city councilors who voted in opposition and residents are worried about underage riding — as you must be at least 18 to operate a scooter — intoxicated driving and driving on sidewalks instead of roads. While the Prairie Village Police Department won’t be completely concerned about this activity, according to Limbird, they’re planning on monitoring this behavior and stepping in if necessary.

“What I’m going to be watching for are people using them where they’re supposed to be used, and are the right age groups of people using them,” Limbird said. “If I see egregious misuse of them, I’m going to be one of the first ones to raise my hand during a council meeting and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t working out for Prairie Village.’”

And, if the scooters aren’t working, the city is able to drop  their “Memorandum of Understanding” — the city and Bird’s non-contractual agreement — and have them removed from the city. Similar to a Spotify Premium 30-day trial, Bird Rides gives the city a one-year trial period and a 30-day out clause. 

“So if it’s not working for any reason, all we have to do as a city is cancel the MOU and say it’s causing this issue or it’s causing this problem and we’re done,” Limbird said.

Junior Michael Newbold is skeptical of the need for the scooters in the first place and considers the idea a “logistical nightmare.”

“We’re a car-dominated society, and because we’re car-dominated, for distances that people could travel by scooter, they travel by car, so there’s no real purpose of implementing a scooter,” Newbold said.

Newbold compares the situation to his childhood hometown, Hong Kong, when they implemented a private bike-sharing company. According to Newbold, bikes ended up being laid all over the city sidewalks, causing a blockade in front of both human and vehicle traffic.

While Newbold recognizes that the suburbs of Prairie Village are not comparable to the size of a bustling city like Hong Kong, he still believes that there’s a possibility that a similar situation could occur here.

“You’ll have this situation where you’ll find scooters lying all over the place and unorganized,” Newbold said. “Since Bird corporation’s only motive is to profit from people riding scooters, I doubt that they’re putting any effort into maintaining and relocating these scooters, or repairing scooters for that matter if they get damaged, displaced or [displaced in unwanted] locations.”

However, according to Limbird, once the city does get ahold of the scooters, Bird itself will engage with a local resident and task them with picking up the scooters every night to be recharged and replaced around town for the next morning.

Regardless, Newbold is still suspicious of the many others that may indefinitely pop up.

“I get where they’re coming from, I mean, you’ve got to admit, getting Bird scooters in your city is pretty cool,” Newbold said. “[I] would say that the entire thought process wasn’t thought through, it’s more of a reputation project than an actual beneficial project to the community.”