Electric scooters ‘well received’ in downtown Montgomery

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - City officials received an update Tuesday on the use of electric scooters across downtown Montgomery.

According to Bird, the company that supplies the electric scooters, the use of the scooters is above what was expected for the capital city.

“From our end, it seems like the program has been well received and definitely, we’re seeing high demand,” Bruno Lopes with Bird said.

According to Lopes, there have been over 15,000 rides so far.

“There’s been about 22,000 miles traveled on those 15,000 rides, which equates to about just over 7000 pounds of co2 that was captured and not emitted into the atmosphere. So, all you know, all those things are very encouraging numbers,” Lopes said.

Bird says that at the request of the police department, it moved the curfew for the availability to ride to 10 p.m. It also implemented “slow zones,” where the scooter will automatically slow down from 15 to 11 mph.

They also added areas where the scooters would turn off. Those areas are: Renaissance Hotel, Embassy Suites, The Alley, Biscuits Stadium, parking deck across the street from Riverwalk and the State Capitol grounds.

Lopes says Bird will continue to look at tailoring the capital city’s electric scooter program to make the best fit for the capital city.

“The one thing is we’re always committed to addressing them, working with the city to implement the different tools we have available to make sure we’re tailoring the program to exactly what Montgomery needs,” Lopes added.

Visitors and residents can find the scooters at 170 locations across the downtown area.

The Montgomery City Council and Mayor Steven Reed passed an ordinance in June 2022 that approved the e-scooter initiative.

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