A fleet of electric scooters has arrived in Baton Rouge as national scooter-sharing company Bird continues its expansion into Louisiana.
The company, which launched in Lafayette two weeks ago, left scooters around downtown, according to a tweet from Baton Rouge Area Chamber CEO Adam Knapp. It’s currently unclear how many scooters the company has placed in Baton Rouge for rental.
Davis Rhorer, Downtown Development District executive director, says he had an informal meeting yesterday with city-parish officials about the possibility of the scooter company coming to Baton Rouge.
“It’s important that this is regulated,” Rhorer says.
During its Lafayette launch, a company spokeswoman told Daily Report the company had no expansion plans to announce, although she believed Baton Rouge would be a great place to expand in the future. Though saying the company looked forward to collaborating with city-parish officials to bring their services to Baton Rouge, Parish Attorney Lea Anne Batson says there was no advance communication between the city-parish and Bird. The company also did not contact Lafayette officials before launching in Acadiana last month, according to statement released by the Lafayette Consolidated Government.
“We are reviewing their operations and best practices around the country to address these types of operations,” Batson says.
Bird was founded in September 2017 and has expanded into more than 100 cities, including Austin, Portland, Atlanta and Memphis.
Representatives from Bird were unable to be reached for more information before this afternoon’s deadline. City-Parish Chief Administrative Officer Darryl Gissel and Director of Transportation and Drainage Fred Raiford also did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Bird Scooters just showed up on the streets of downtown @BirdRide @BRAC_BatonRouge pic.twitter.com/r0qSE2ZfbY
— Adam Knapp (@knappad) December 13, 2018
