Lance Weinert, Bird fleet manager for the electric bikes and scooters program in the city has begun a petition to keep the program going. P-J file photo

Jamestown’s decision to end its contract with Bird scooters is prompting a response from the program’s local fleet manager.

According to the Associated Press, the Miami-based Bird Global has lost more than $430 million since the end of 2021. Bird had lined up $25 million in financing from MidCap Financial, a division of Apollo Global Management, as it tries to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida. That bankruptcy filing made city officials reconsider Jamestown’s contract with Bird Global.

“The scooters were entered into on a trial basis,” Mayor Kim Ecklund said when contacted by The Post-Journal on Wednesday. “The city reviewed the contract and opted to terminate at this time. The termination of the contract does not foreclose on future ride share agreements, but there are items that would need to be addressed before the city permitted scooter or bike shares to exist again. As stated in the city’s letter canceling the contract, we are always open to further discussions and negotiations on individual matters.”

Lance Weinert, Bird’s local fleet manager, has created a petition at www.change.org/Jamestownscooters to preserve the scooter program. He said ridership during a 58-day period last fall showed value to the community with the scooters providing an alternate form of transportation to a bus or Uber. Specifically, students at Jamestown Community College were found to benefit from the program.

Statistics presented during a City Council meeting late last year showed 771 unique users traveled a total of 6,000 miles on one of Bird Bikeshare’s electric bikes or scooters available for rent throughout the city. The average ride was about 1.4 miles and lasted 13 minutes.

According to Weinert, the program began in the city of Jamestown after Bird reached out to the city because they were looking to do a blitz in the local area to find cities willing to try and do a pilot program. There was a lease for the city to put in the program at no risk to Bird or the city. Things did not move quite as fast as expected because of the original lack of a fleet manager before Weinert was asked.

“Jamestown seems to not let things transpire and cut things too fast,” Weinert said. “There has been no community input or message to the community regarding the program. I’m starting this petition to get community support and let the board know that the community thinks this program is valuable.”

In an Associated Press report, Michael Washinushi, Bird’s interim CEO, predicted the company will be able to bounce back and continue its “mission to make cities more livable” by providing vehicles that don’t clog the roads nor burn fuel. But investors seemed doubtful as Bird’s stock lost nearly 80% of its remaining value Dec. 20 when the bankruptcy filing was announced to close at 8 cents per share, the AP said.

Weinert said Bird has had no talks with the city about continuing the program other than receiving the termination letter. The city man said, in his opinion, another company is unlikely to come to Jamestown with a similar offer.

“We are a small city with a small population and having a company like Bird come here at no cost is a great opportunity,” Weinert said. “The micro-mobility industry has flipped upside down. Corporations are not coming here with scooters to offer the city. There may never be another chance to get another program like this, at least not for multiple years.”

One other aspect that would benefit the community according to Weinert is the safety aspect. Specifically, having a scooter rental program would lead to having less electric scooters in apartments or homes that would need to be charged, leading to less risk of lithium battery fires.

“Having the community behind the program is beneficial in the fire aspect,” Weinert said. “There are 120 scooters and 50 bikes in my fleet. There is a big safety benefit to the program. My facility has been inspected and approved by the fire department. Having this facility leads to less equipment in the community to be left around charging everywhere.”