Actually, you could save yourself the evaluation planned after a six-month test run. Because the e-scooter operator Bird has already withdrawn its scooters from Unterschleißheim, just like the US company with its headquarters in Miami, Florida, has done throughout Germany, Sweden and Norway. Nevertheless, the city council’s traffic committee wants to discuss shortly how it went. Green City Councilor Bernhard Schüßler has already settled the e-scooters in advance. He said he remembered the scooter company’s guest performance in Unterschleißheim so negatively that he wanted to do everything possible now to prevent an e-scooter operator from coming up with the idea of putting his vehicles on the streets again .
Bernhard Schüßler is almost blind. And he reported to the city council how he himself had suffered from the scooters. He had had some “unpleasant experiences”. He felt like he was in the “Wild West”. When asked by the SZ, he describes how scooters were parked at the S-Bahn station in front of the stairs in such a way that they could have been deliberately placed tripping hazards. This is particularly dangerous for older people with visual impairments. He knows of acquaintances who also only have limited eyesight, who have had negative experiences similar to his. There had been injuries.
Mayor Christoph Böck (SPD) wants to discuss all of this before Christmas in private. This was necessary because the company had received data that the company wanted to keep confidential for competitive reasons, he said. The tenor should be rather negative. “I also heard very critical voices,” said Böck. However, as Böck pointed out, there is no legal remedy if a company wants to set up its rental scooters in the city area. Schuessler is also aware of that. He therefore definitely wants the city to be well prepared if another company wants to set up their scooters so that things run more orderly. For him, Munich city center is a role model: parking areas for vehicles are marked within the Altstadtring and defined by geofencing. Only there may and can they be parked.
The company Bird has reduced its business according to its own statements in Europe as well as in the Arab and African region due to the intensified competition in the scooter rental market. The company, which is listed on the US stock exchange, has recently posted high losses.