Fairfax County’s only electric scooter provider will continue operating even after filing for bankruptcy last month.
The company, Bird, will also maintain its scooters in Fairfax City, where it’s one of two companies in a pilot program.
“We expect to continue operations in Fairfax and Fairfax County as normal and we look forward to working with the city and county administration as a partner into the future,” a Bird representative wrote in an email to FFXnow.
The county and city have both been told by the company that service will go on. Bird has permission to operate 300 devices in Fairfax County, while the City of Fairfax generally permits up to 250 devices per company.
Bird and Superpedestrian’s LINK got permission to bring their products to Fairfax County in July 2021 following a November 2019 county board ordinance regulated shared mobility devices. Superpedestrian recently stopped all U.S. operations, though it had already been dropped from the county’s operator list after failing to renew its permit in January 2022.
The county doesn’t appear to have any new partners in the offing at the moment.
“Anyone may submit a Shared Mobility Device Operator Permit Application for review,” wrote Rebecca Makely, director of the county’s department of cable and consumer services, in an email to FFXnow.
Bird’s shared mobility devices saw nearly 20,000 rides between July and December 2023, according to data provided by the county, with an average ride distance of just over a mile during that period.
FairfaxCity authorized a shared mobility pilot program of its own in May 2019, but has yet to establish a permanent program. Bird and San Francisco-based Lime are currently authorized under the pilot, which the city council unanimously voted to extend through June 30, 2024 at a Jan. 9 meeting.
City staff expects to develop a proposal for a more permanent program by the time this extension ends.
“There was a lot of bumpiness during Covid, but a lot of the operations and usage have stabilized, and we feel like we can now begin to transition to a more permanent, long-term program,” Chloe Ritter, the city’s multimodal transportation planner, said at the meeting.
While the city doesn’t expect Bird’s bankruptcy filing to have immediate effects, it could inform program planning.
“We can’t predict what’s going to happen in six months or two years, but I think it’s a good reminder for us to keep our program flexible to respond to those kinds of things,” Ritter said.
In neighboring Arlington County, scooter and e-bike provider Veo recently declined to renew its permit, citing market conditions. Superpedestrian is also exiting Arlington as it shutters its U.S. business.
Bird and Bird-owned Spin still operate in Arlington, as does Lime, which announced near the end of 2023 that it had logged 500 million total rides on its devices.
A man who fell while riding a motorized scooter in Reston in late November died from his injuries.
Malcolm Printup, 46, of Reston crashed his electric scooter at the intersection of Town Center Parkway and Town Center Parkway on Nov. 26 at around 2:45 p.m.
Printup was hospitalized for life-threatening injuries and was later pronounced dead, the Fairfax County Police Department recently confirmed to FFXnow. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
It’s unclear what caused the crash.
The FCPD declined to release the death investigation.
“The completed death investigation may only be released to the parent or spouse of the decedent or, if there is no living parent or spouse, to the most immediate family member of the decedent,” FCPD wrote in a statement.
A man suffered critical injuries when he fell while riding a motorized scooter in Reston yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, police say.
The Fairfax County Police Department said the man fell while riding a scooter at Town Center Drive and Bowman Towne Drive. He was taken to the hospital with injuries considered life-threatening.
According to scanner traffic on Open MHz, the crash occurred around 2:36 p.m. An initial dispatch suggested that a bicyclist was involved, but a responding officer quickly clarified that it “looked like a crash with scooter going at high speed.”
An FCPD spokesperson confirmed that no other vehicle was involved in the crash.
“The circumstances of what caused the crash are currently under investigation by our Crash Reconstruction Unit detectives,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Town Center Drive was closed for about two hours yesterday, as crash reconstruction unit detectives worked on the scene.
Road Closure: Crash Reconstruction Unit detectives are responding to Town Center Dr and Bowman Towne Dr after a man fell while riding a scooter. The man was taken to the hospital with injuries considered life-threatening. Town Center Dr is closed. Please use alternate route. pic.twitter.com/se6eqf1Yal
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) November 26, 2023
Fairfax County has now lived with shared electric scooters for almost half a year, and early data suggests the devices have been serving their intended function.
There has been one hiccup, however: Superpedestrian’s LINK — one of two vendors approved to operate in the county last July — did not renew its permit after it expired in January, according to the Fairfax County Department of Cable and Consumer Services, which regulates the Shared Mobility Device program.
For now, that means Bird is the only e-scooter operator in town, but Superpedestrian and the county say Link will return.
“Superpedestrian plans to continue serving Fairfax County,” Superpedestrian Director of Communications Jamie Perkins said by email. “We’re working with the County now on our permit renewal, so that our riders in Fairfax won’t experience a gap in service.”
Rebecca Makely, acting director for the Department of Cable and Consumer Services, said Superpedestrian had recently experienced “some staff turnover,” possibly contributing to the permit renewal delay.
The permits granted by the county allow operators to deploy up to 300 scooters each. Superpedestrian says it plans “to continue with that level of service.”
Prior to its permit expiration, usage of Link’s e-scooters in the county was on the rise, according to data that the company submitted to the county as required by its contract.
Link reported 702 total rides in August, when it started deploying its scooters, with an average trip distance of 0.77 miles. The number of rides increased every month, reaching 1,045 rides for January.
Maps showing where trips start and end indicate that the company’s devices are concentrated in Tysons, Merrifield, and Fairfax, particularly around George Mason University.
For Bird, ridership has trended in the opposite direction, starting at a high of 4,968 rides in September 2021. After hitting a low of 1,007 rides in February, though, the company saw its usage more than double for 2,309 rides in March, suggesting the previous drop could be related to the winter weather.
“We’ve been encouraged by ridership in Fairfax County and commend the County for their commitment to providing residents with an eco-friendly alternative mode of transportation,” Bird said in a statement. “As the weather warms up, we look forward to seeing more riders scooting around town.”
According to heat maps that Bird gave to the county, its scooters are primarily being used in Tysons, Reston, and Bailey’s Crossroads.
For both vendors, the average travel distance has typically been under a mile, though Link saw an average of 1.16 miles in October. That suggests e-scooters are serving as a “first mile, last mile” transportation option, as the county hoped when the Board of Supervisors approved regulations for the devices in 2019.
“[Shared mobile devices] are easy to use and access and have a low cost of use, providing yet another transportation option to access entertainment, dining, shopping, and other destinations,” Makely said in a statement. “SMDs serve as a component in the ActiveFairfax Transportation Plan, with a framework for advancing active transportation and a vision and roadmap for safe, convenient, and enjoyable streets and trails in Fairfax County.”
