Flying through KC: a Day on a Bird Scooter

Bird scooters, like electric CitiBikes,  were banned from campuses and thrown into rivers all across America just as soon as they hit the market in May. While being an alluring piece of new technology for my fellow youngsters, the scooters proved to be a hindrance to road traffic.

So I set out to do just that. I wanted to give what some angry roadsters call “scooter-geddon” a chance to see if it was appropriately named (and try to pop a few wheelies in the process).

I was intrigued by the idea mainly because I’d do just about anything to make shopping easier. I figured that the app’s accessibility would simplify the renting process, and I found solace in the fact that I could easily find a scooter nearby if my legs ever got tired.

To use the scooters, you need to download the Bird app. From there, follow the map to the nearest scooter, scan the label along with their driver’s license (riders must be 18+) and kick off of the ground. Each ride is a flat rate of $1 plus 15 cents per minute.

Scooters within Kansas City can be found downtown, in Brookside and in Loose Park. Although the scooters don’t have a drop site and can be left wherever, most scooters find their way back to one of these three locations.

For my first day of pedal-free fun, I settled on Brookside —in case all the hard work made me thirsty for some Roasterie (spoiler alert‒it did). Upon download I immediately noticed how little information was provided on the app’s map.There were few labeled streets, and the map got finicky when I tried to zoom in. It kept lagging so by the time I received my location, I missed the scooter I was on the hunt for. After trolling around Wornall for a while, I finally spotted the black and grey bird.  

After getting the OK on all of my info, I snapped on my helmet and was ready to plow over some pedestrians. When the motor kicked in, the lightness of the scooter surprised me – my runner’s bod could barely lug the thing around manually.

Consider my wheelies popped.

When going in a straight line, I did feel like a bird in the air. However, there were two main problems: the breaks were incredibly sensitive and even the slightest turn took football fields. Thanks to the bipolar sidewalks, this made for a dangerous duo, which frightened some window shoppers.

I did see about three other people on scooters throughout the day, and we all nodded at each other as if we were in some sort of bird cult.

Other Brookside-goers were not so kind. I got honked at a handful of times despite following all rules of the road, and pedestrians would often glare at me as I carefully scooted along. It’s hard for me to believe that I could’ve been that big of an inconvenience to others as I mostly kept to myself. Honestly, I think that people are just overreacting to a new high-tech way to get around that involves having to share the sidewalks and roads… even if it’s just the bike lane.

While the system is streamlined in theory, there were a few issues I ran into before I was even zooming around. On my second day of wanting to use bird, the app wouldn’t verify my ID and made me wait while the company reviewed my information. The scanner built into the app is designed to scan 21+ horizontal IDs while mine is still vertical. After waiting for an hour with no updates from the app, I decided to head home.
After flying around, Bird’s “handy city transportation” mission seems a bit far fetched for Kansas City, where everything is an easy walk. However, I could see them being handy in bigger cities where a location is too far away to walk and an Uber ride would be a hassle. Next time I take flight in Kansas City,  I’ll take my wings to Loose, and soar to my true potential.