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Bird Scooters Protests Santa Monica Snub

SANTA MONICA (CBSLA) — Bird scooters has shut its service down in Santa Monica.

As CBSLA's Jeff Nguyen reports, the company is staging a protest because the local start-up failed to top the list following an application review by a city committee for its electric bike and scooter program which is launching next month.

Lime scooters also failed to make the cut.

So who did?

Lyft and Uber -- which owns a company called Jump. They got the best scores after the city council approved a test program that will award contracts to two e-scooter companies.

Santa Monica resident Anatoly Petrov says both Bird and Lime are great scooters but they need to be regulated.

"Eighty percent of the people riding them violate one or other statute, you know? Either not wearing a helmet, could be underage, or riding on the sidewalk," said Petrov.

So Bird is asking riders to take part in a rally Tuesday evening during a city council meeting to show support for the home-grown company and push back against the recommendation to allow Uber and Lyft to enter the scooter market in Santa Monica.

"I think it'd be cool if Bird was just Bird and Uber and Lyft was just Uber and Lyft," said Bird rider Chase Roques.

"Uber and Lyft is basically a taxi-car company," said Bird rider Hector Bello. "I never thought they'd get into the scooter business."

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