# Electric scooters in Los Angeles

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2018-09-19

beverly-hills, bird-scooter, bloomberg, businessweek, e-scooter, electric-scooter, los-angeles, santa-monica, uncategorized, vox

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Bloomberg Businessweek just published [this article](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-09-18/bird-scooters-spread-across-los-angeles-one-year-after-launch?srnd=businessweek-v2) summarizing the impact that Bird and its electric scooters are having on Los Angeles. Here are a couple of highlights:

\- Bird launched a year ago and is, today, valued at around $2 billion.

\- The company has around 15,000 scooters on the road in Los Angeles. We already know that this is making some/many people grouchy.

\- The cost to rent a scooter is $1 plus $0.15 a minute.

\- LA has an incentive program in place that allows Bird to expand its fleet within low-income areas. Still, their scooters tend to be concentrated in wealthier areas of the city.

\- Beverly Hills is trying to figure out how to handle/regulate these scooters and currently has a 6 month ban in place.

\- Supposedly, you can ride a Bird through West Hollywood but you’re not allowed to park it anywhere.

The company is based in Santa Monica, so it’s not surprising that they have such a stronghold in the LA market. Still, there appears to be a lot of latent demand for this kind of mobility.

![image](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1b3c949a5fb55524026db36e493ffa67.png)

According the [US Department of Energy](https://www.vox.com/2018/8/27/17676670/electric-scooter-rental-bird-lime-skip-spin-cities), almost 60% of vehicle trips in the US last year were less than 6 miles. And around 40% were less than 2 miles. 

So these “last mile scooters” do appear to have a lot of utility. Do any of you regularly use an electric scooter to get around?

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/electric-scooters-in-los-angeles)*