Bird scooters land in Bloomington

Bird, an electric-vehicle-sharing company, started deploying its dockless scooters throughout Bloomington in September. Bird has an app that riders can use to rent a scooter. When the rider is finished, they shut down the scooter and close the ride in the app. The charge is determined by the amount of time the rider was using the scooter.

Dockless scooters are new to Bloomington and made possible by a City Council-approved change to the city code to expand the area where such vehicles are allowed to operate. Bird is allowed to operate up to 200 scooters in the city until November 15, weather permitting. In the spring, the City anticipates that Bird will bring the scooters back.

Some areas are defined as prohibited zones, including Mall of America property, Bloomington parks, Three Rivers Park District and U.S. Fish and Wildlife lands. These are prohibited through geofencing in the Bird app. City staff will reach out to these entities to see if they would like to allow scooters in the future.

People can report abandoned scooters to bloomington311@bird.co.