Bird self-service scooters land in Villemomble

The hundred self-service electric scooters appeared in the cool, in the early morning of this Friday, in Villemomble.

Positioned in small groups, on parking areas agreed with the municipality, they were deployed by Bird.

Until last fall, the American operator occupied the ground in the capital alongside a dozen other specialists in micro-mobility, until the mayor of Paris decided to put it back. order and retain three candidates: Dott, Lime and TIER.

Each of them is limited to the operation of 5,000 machines.

Exit the cobblestones of the city of light for Bird, make way for the asphalt of the small and large suburbs.

Since December, the American company has broadened its strategy and has turned to medium-sized municipalities of 30,000 inhabitants to offer them its service.

After Viry-Châtillon and Brétigny-sur-Orge in Essonne, then Roissy-en-Brie, in Seine-et-Marne, the operator is entering Seine-Saint-Denis, through Villemomble.

“A one-year test”, specifies the municipality, which relies on these pocket two-wheelers bridged at 25 km / h to relieve its streets from car traffic.

In the collimator is the N 302 which crosses the town and contributes to its congestion.

The idea is also to connect scooter parks to public transport, to encourage people to take them.

Impossible to park in the wild

Use is simple: just download the app on your smartphone and create an account to unlock the small two-wheelers.

To make itself known in Villemomble, Bird offers a two-week launch offer, during which customers (who must be of age) will not pay the cost of unlocking the scooter (usually € 1 per race).

Then the price charged to the time spent is added, on the basis of 20 cents per minute.

The operator also offers different forms of subscription.

The borrowers will obviously not be able to leave the perimeter of coverage, limited to the municipality, under penalty of seeing the scooter stop.

Impossible also according to Bird, to get rid of his electric horse on a sidewalk, in the wild: the application will consider the race still active and will continue to count the price of the trip ... Finally, the speed limited to 25 km / h s '' automatically lowers to 8 km / h, when approaching sensitive areas set with the town hall, around a school for example.

Bird also remains present in large metropolises, such as Marseille and Bordeaux.