Scooter company in contact with Logan, but Bird isn’t ready to fly just yet

By Kendall Douglass

One of the nation’s largest electric scooter-share companies has submitted an application to operate in Logan.

The city’s legal department is going over the business license application from Bird, a Santa Monica, California-based company that operates in dozens of cities nationwide, including Salt Lake City and South Salt Lake. Logan is currently waiting for a response from Bird’s municipality liaison in order to discuss the details of the application that would be needed to create a contract.

“They’ve reached out to us, but nothing so far has been planned,” said Emily Malik, the conservation coordinator for Logan.

The contract would cover how and where the scooters are used and stored, and how they would be managed and operated.

“They’re not allowed on a sidewalk, so we’d have to figure out where in the street they would be applicable,” said Russ Holley, the senior planner for Logan.

“With any type of program or system like this, we always try to coordinate with the different municipalities or transit districts,” Holley said.

The contract between the city and Bird would involve coordination between Cache Valley Transit District and other transportation groups.

“We want to make sure there’s transportation solutions for the valley, and we recognize there’s got to be multiple solutions,” said Todd Beutler, the general manager and CEO of Cache Valley Transit District. “It can’t just be car; it can’t just be bus; we want to encourage active transportation. Bikes, scooters, whatever.”

Cache Valley Transit District is already coming up with ideas on how to implement the scooters, such as having drop-off locations at bus stops.

“However it’s done, we want to make sure it’s done in the safest possible way,” Beutler said.