BLOOMINGTON — Electric scooter and bike users in Bloomington will soon have only one brand of micro-mobility vehicles to choose from.
The Board of Public Works denied a contract renewal with Lime at its meeting Tuesday, leaving Bird as the sole remaining provider of electric micro-mobility vehicles.
The board previously updated the city license requirements for companies supplying the vehicles. Bloomington notified Lime that its contract renewal application did not meet some of the requirements.
The San Francisco-based company declined a request to update the application with the necessary changes.
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Among the new requirements, the board found Lime refused to provide a complete inventory of all the equipment that would be within city limits, refused the one-time license fee and would not acknowledged that at least 35% of the fleet will consist of e-bikes as part the updated requirements.
The contract denial means that Bird electric scooters and bikes will be the only remaining option. VeoRide pulled their fleet of micro-mobility vehicles out of the market at the end of 2023.
According to data provided by the city, rides between Lime and Bird were nearly split during the month of August. There were 8,493 total rides on Lime e-scooters and e-bikes and 8,578 total rides on Bird micro-mobility vehicles.
The numbers are down significantly from when the fleets were introduced in September 2018. According to data provided by the city, there were nearly 100,000 total rides in September 2019.
