Overland Park weighs new scooter pilot after Bird’s abrupt departure

Lime e-scooters and Bird e-scooters parked next to each other. Image via Shutterstock.

Overland Park is looking to start another pilot program with a new vendor to bring electric scooters and bikes to the city.

During a recent Overland Park City Council Public Works Committee meeting, city staff and councilmembers discussed a potential path forward to continue to offer the devices now that scooter company Bird has left.

What happened with Bird?

Previously, the city had a two-year agreement with Bird to offer pay-to-ride electric bikes and scooters through the end of November.
But the company removed all of its devices from the city by August, citing staffing woes.
That move unofficially ended the pilot program with the company a few months earlier than expected.
Since then, communication with the company has been spotty, Brian Shields, Overland Park’s traffic engineer said at a recent Community Development Committee meeting.
Olathe city officials told the Post that its fleet of Bird scooters was removed, too.

Overland Park wants another scooter pilot

Last week, Shields told the Public Works Committee that the city manager’s office would prefer the city enter into another pilot agreement with another vendor in order to keep city staff involvement low.

Such an agreement wouldn’t preclude other vendors from reaching similar agreements in the future, Shields said, but it would simply be a starting place.

Bird Rides recently removed all of its e-scooters and e-bikes from the city of Overland Park due to staffing trouble. Now, the city is studying the future of the pilot to allow such mobility device providers in the city. — Bird Rides recently removed all of its e-scooters and e-bikes from the city of Overland Park due to staffing trouble. Now, the city is considering entering into a new pilot with a different micromobility device providers.. File photo.

Vendors Lime and Superpedestrian have both inquired with the city about offering their devices in Overland Park.

Lime has both bikes and scooters, while Superpedestrian offers just scooters, though it has a seated scooter option.

Could there be more scooters in the south of the city?

Exactly what a new pilot program with a new vendor will look like is unclear at this stage.

However, Shields said the city would like to see more of the scooters and bikes deployed in the southern half of the city since most of the Bird devices stayed north of 103rd Street.

Additionally, Overland Park hopes to get Johnson County Community College on board with having the electric scooters and bikes on campus, which was not allowed during the agreement with Bird.

The majority of the council committee supported the plan to proceed with a new agreement with one vendor.

That being said, Councilmember Jeff Cox questioned whether putting a lot of requirements in the agreement — like stipulating south Overland Park deployment — could scare away vendors.

Next steps:

Any pilot program proposals are likely to come back before the Public Works Committee and possibly the Community Development Committee for further discussion.
The full city council would also have to approve any agreement with another vendor before it’s official.
The timeline is currently unclear.

Keep reading: Bird pulls scooters and e-bikes from Overland Park