Coming to a sidewalk near you: 1st Charlotte suburb lands Bird scooters
Fifty electric scooters will go live Friday in Matthews, in an effort to expand access to affordable and environmentally-friendly transportation.
The scooters, made by Bird, support the town’s “vision for a well-planned, multi-modal transportation system,” said Matthews Mayor John Higdon in a news release this week.
Matthews will be the first Charlotte suburb to have Bird scooters.
The scooters can be activated through Bird’s smartphone app and can reach speeds of up to 15 miles per hour. They cost $1 to unlock plus a per-minute fee that varies slightly based on location and demand.
Scooters will be blocked by a virtual barrier from operating in a two block area on Trade Street from Charles Street to E. Matthews Street due to the high volume of traffic there.
Elsewhere, riding on sidewalks will be allowed. That’s proved controversial in the past: Charlotte City Council in 2019 banned scooters from some uptown sidewalks amid concerns over pedestrian safety.
Town officials hope the scooters “help people with that first mile-last mile connection” to public transit, Matthews spokeswoman Maureen Keith told The Charlotte Observer. By making it easier to connect homes and workplaces to the nearest transit stop, Keith said the scooters will “increase mobility and flexibility throughout Matthews.”
The town joins hundreds of cities, mostly in the United States and Europe, with Bird scooters on local streets.
Mayor Pro-Tem Ken McCool will ride a scooter outside Matthews Town Hall on Friday at 10 a.m. to mark Bird’s arrival.
Bird’s Community Pricing Program will be active in Matthews. The program offers a 50% discount to low-income riders, Pell grant recipients, select local nonprofit and community organizations, veterans and senior citizens. In addition, healthcare workers and emergency personnel get two free 30-minute rides per day.
This story was originally published June 29, 2022 at 2:01 PM.
