Scooter-sharing startup Bird takes flight in Santa Monica

Last fall a battery-powered, adult-size variant on a Razor scooter appeared on the streets of downtown Santa Monica.

DnA talks to Anuj Gupta, deputy city manager, and learns that while, yes, the City does embrace Birds for all these reasons, “the challenge is that they have been operating in our city without a business license to operate,” they present a “public safety concern because of the fact that these scooters are in the public right of way,” and “they are operating in the public right away without a permit to do so.”

A Bird scooter left on the Santa Monica boardwalk. Photo by Avishay Artsy.