Anyone who’s visited the Burlington area since June has seen them: a fleet of seemingly free-range bright blue bikes. Frequently, they’re taken for a spin by ever-changing riders. The rest of the time, they’re abandoned on sidewalks and greenbelts or in parks. Some are covered with graffiti or missing seats.
The two-wheelers are part of the city’s new bike-share program, a partnership between Miami-based Bird and the Chittenden Area Transportation Management Association. Riders pay through the Bird app and can choose from about 200 electric-assist bikes across Burlington, South Burlington and Winooski. Rather than being clustered at designated racks, the bikes are “dockless” and designed to be left wherever the rider chooses within the cities’ limits. Bird programs the bikes to slowly come to a stop outside of geofenced “no-ride zones.”
The atypical parking locations are a feature, not a bug, Bird spokesperson Lauren Scribi said. Riders can park at their exact destination rather than centralized parking hubs, she said, which increases accessibility.
“We’re really pleased to see that not only students but residents as well as visitors are using the bikes,” Scribi said. “That’s wonderful for us and wonderful for the community.”
But while some locals love the convenience of dockless parking, others are complaining about bikes left on private property or blocking pedestrians or cars. As the winter nears — and with it, the potential that the bikes could pose a hazard during snow removal — city officials are asking Bird to address their concerns over how the program is administered.
Atypical parking locations are a feature of Bird’s dockless bike-share model, not a bug.
“It’s just absolute chaos,” City Councilor Hannah King (D-Ward 8) said during a transportation subcommittee meeting last month. “There will be, like, six Bird bikes in the middle of the parking lot, so no one can use their cars and people are late to work. No one knows how to move them.”
The Bird app prompts users to upload a picture of their parked bike at the end of their ride to confirm they’ve left the vehicle upright and out of the public right of way, Scribi said. Riders found to have parked their bike inappropriately incur a fee. But sometimes members of the public try to move locked bikes and accidentally tip them over, Scribi said, so Bird can’t always attribute a poorly parked bike to the last rider. She acknowledged that vandalism, including bike seat thefts and graffiti, is also an issue.
“We just ask that members of the public understand this is a public service, and we want everybody to utilize it,” Scribi said. “Please respect the vehicles as you would respect your own.”
The bikes have a small electronic display with a speedometer, a front basket, lights and a bell. They’re “electric assisted,” meaning a rider has to pedal but gets a boost from the battery. They can hit a top speed of about 15 miles per hour.
The app shows a map with the location of every bike, plus its battery level. The map also shows the ride boundaries and other no-go zones, such as Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace and Red Rocks Park in South Burlington. The company limits the speed of the bikes in certain areas along the waterfront, too.
Once a ride ends, the 75-pound bikes can roll several feet before the wheels lock in place. People who see a poorly parked bike should report the issue with the Bird app rather than try to move the heavy bikes themselves, Scribi said. Bird has two on-the-ground fleet managers who deal with any issues, periodically replace the bikes’ batteries and move bikes that haven’t been used to higher-trafficked locations, she said. A fully charged battery usually lasts 25 miles.
Some complaints are “par for the course,” Scribi added, noting that issues arise in “every market” Bird has entered. The company operates bike-share and scooter programs in hundreds of cities across 16 countries, according to its website.
CATMA executive director Sandy Thibault said she’s been pleased with Bird’s rollout and sees the bike share filling a need for accessible public transportation. The Burlington area lacked a bike share after Bolt Mobility, which owned 200 electric bikes used in the defunct Greenride Bikeshare program, unexpectedly ceased operations in July 2022. That program used centralized hubs and had a different payment model.
Thibault said Bird bikes have been well utilized so far, racking up almost 23,000 miles since the launch in late June. She attributes part of that success to the dockless model.
“If someone can take a Bird bike from their grocery [store] to their home, carry a couple of bags into their house and leave their bike nearby, that’s certainly more convenient than having to drop it off at a hub and then walk two or three or four blocks,” she said.
The bike share is also affordable, Thibault said. Trips cost $1 to start and 49 cents for each additional minute. Bird gives half off to low-income riders who qualify for government assistance and a 20 percent discount to students.
Thibault thinks the parking problem will be resolved over time as more people learn the rules of the road. After receiving complaints, CATMA created an FAQ on how to properly stow the bikes, with instructions to park “out of the way” typed in bold.
For University of Vermont first-year student Ava Ramsey, Bird bikes have been an affordable and quick way to get across campus. “My dorm is kind of far away, so it makes it really convenient to get to and from [places] — especially when I’m in a hurry,” she said.
But for Cara Tucker, who uses a wheelchair, the bikes have been an obstacle to getting around Burlington. They frequently block her chair’s path on the sidewalk, forcing her to backtrack or attempt to push the bikes out of the way.
While Tucker said she supports environmentally friendly transportation options such as Bird, she wishes the city would consider the challenges that strewn bikes pose for people with disabilities.
“It makes navigating in the chair really difficult,” Tucker said. “It really can throw off a whole trip.”
City Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2) has also noticed Bird bikes blocking the sidewalks. Frustrated with having to maneuver around the bikes while jogging downtown, he’s requested that a representative from Bird or CATMA attend the next transportation subcommittee meeting to discuss how the company is monitoring parking. He said Bird needs to take more accountability for where its bikes end up.
“I’m not impressed with the parking. I’ve seen far too many [bikes] that are just left in the middle or dumped over,” Bergman said. “It speaks to a need for Bird to more closely monitor its fleet.”
CATMA has a yearlong contract with Bird. The company plans to keep expanding and hopes to add new bikes to its Burlington-area fleet in the spring, Scribi said.
“We really appreciate everybody utilizing our bikes, and we’re looking forward to continuing to be there,” Scribi said. “Get out of the cars. Get on the bikes. That’s what we like to see.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Bird Watching | A “dockless” bike-share program has landed in the Burlington area”
This article appears in The Tech Issue 2023.
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