Bye-bye, SF scooters as Bird, Lime and Spin go on hiatus

As if by magic, the scooters are gone.

The hundreds of for-rent stand-up electric scooters that appeared on San Francisco streets almost overnight in late March, drawing both fans and haters, have disappeared just as quickly — but could return within weeks.

The city mandated that all the rental e-scooters must cease operations by Monday while the companies behind them apply for permits.

The hiatus is the latest twist in the saga of three well-funded tech companies, Bird, Lime and Spin, that started local operations without permission. The scooters’ popularity with riders was mirrored in antipathy by pedestrians, who complained that they were being ridden and parked willy-nilly on sidewalks, obstructing the right of way.

“It’s so typical of both San Francisco and Silicon Valley: The tech companies jumping out there and doing what they wanted, and then the city overreacting,” said Daniel Sisson, a board member of San Francisco Transit Riders, a grassroots advocacy group focused on improving local transit.

While he hasn’t ridden the scooters and finds them annoying as a pedestrian, Sisson said he thinks they’re a creative solution with a role in the city’s transportation.

“They’re so small, so (energy) efficient, and can help so many people make these little jumps just beyond walking distance,” he said.

Bird, Lime and Spin all said they have removed their scooters, and they hope to receive permits to operate legally. Applications are due Wednesday, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will make decisions by the end of the month. All three companies charged $1 to unlock a scooter plus 15 cents per minute of use.

“We are pleased that it appears the companies are following the law,” said MTA spokesman Paul Rose. “We will be taking the next step to review their applications and issue permits to the companies that can fulfill all the requirements.” Those requirements include plans to keep sidewalks clear of scooters, to protect riders’ privacy, to provide insurance coverage, to offer access for low-income riders, and to share trip data with the transportation agency.

Any remaining scooter will rack up fines of $100 a day plus fees and hurt its owner’s chance to get a permit. Rose said the city looked for stragglers on Monday but didn’t find any.

San Francisco’s new 12-month pilot plan will issue permits to five companies, capping the number of scooters at 1,250 for the first six months, with the possibility of doubling that in the second six months.

The companies, meanwhile, are angling to enlist riders to lobby on their behalf.

Lime of San Mateo, for instance, asked its riders to write to city officials about their positive experiences, because it hopes to have a large share of the 1,250 permitted scooters.

Bird of Santa Monica went further, asking its riders to send letters expressing sadness about losing “the fun and convenience of a Bird ride.”

Spin of San Francisco appeared to have complied with the deadline early, with its app displaying a message saying it had pulled its scooters from the streets Saturday.

People close to the companies said limiting the number of scooters would hurt access for residents of outlying neighborhoods, and said linking a cap to actual demand would make more sense.

Sisson said he agreed with that view. “Why put a limit?” he said. “As long as they’re being (parked) correctly, why? There’s no limit on the number of cars in San Francisco.”

But some local residents said they were happy the scooters were being reined in after months of a free-for-all on city streets and sidewalks.

Amanda Westenskow, 24, a San Jose resident who works at a tech company at 10th and Market streets, said she’d prefer that the scooter operations were more organized.

“I get nervous seeing people whizzing by without a helmet. They could get hit and killed,” she said. “People throw them in the street. They fall over. It’s just too busy in San Francisco.”

San Francisco resident Daniel Blum, 33, who works at a music company on Folsom Street, said it was “awesome” that the scooters had vanished.

“I think the implementation was god-awful,” he said of the scooter rollout. “The fact that they just dumped them was a nuisance. As a way to get around it was perfectly fine, but they had a lot of negative aspects.”

Elsewhere, the scooters are spreading. Denver, where Lime and Bird recently started operations, warned the companies Friday that it would start confiscating scooters left on public roads and sidewalks.