San Francisco Grants 2 Scooter Permits (but Not to the Early Disrupters)

A statement from Bird said, “While we are disappointed with today’s decision, we hope to have the opportunity to meet the needs of S.F. residents and to help the city achieve its transportation goals following this initial test period.” The company noted that it had run a campaign that resulted in 30,000 emails to city officials expressing their support for Bird.

“Today’s decision is disappointing,” said Toby Sun, Lime’s chief executive. “San Franciscans deserve an equitable and transparent process when it comes to transportation and mobility. Instead, the S.F.M.T.A. has selected inexperienced scooter operators that plan to learn on the job, at the expense of the public good.”

The San Francisco transportation agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Skip and Scoot will be permitted to operate 625 scooters each in the city. The city can double the number in the future.

Skip, founded in 2017, has been careful to approach municipalities before it begins operations, said Sanjay Dastoor, its chief executive. So far, the company has operated pilot programs in Portland and Washington, D.C. With $31 million in venture funding and just over 1,000 scooters in operation, it is among the smaller scooter start-ups.

“The ability to operate and serve the city effectively doesn’t really depend on the amount of cash you have in the bank,” Mr. Dastoor said.

Scoot has operated electric mopeds in San Francisco since 2012. “That makes us the most experienced company doing small electric vehicles anywhere in the world,” Michael Keating, Scoot’s chief executive, said. “It seems like a tiny niche, but then this year some companies raised huge sums of money and suddenly it became very, very interesting to some folks.”

Lime and Bird have each raised more than $400 million in funding from venture capital firms. Mr. Keating would not disclose how much funding Scoot had raised.

Lime, Bird, Jump and Lyft have some consolation: On Thursday, Santa Monica, Calif., approved their permits to operate 750 scooters or bikes each in a pilot program. However, the city limited Jump’s and Lyft’s scooter counts to 250 each.

Shared from: www.nytimes.com

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