Can Bird Unbundle Your Payment Apps?

February 25, 2020

This week, cars kill small business, ebikes are back in NYC, and if investors are getting cold feet about scooters, no one told Tier, but first…

Welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by small vehicles like bikes and scooters. The reason you’re reading this email is that you signed up on our website or came to one of our events.

If you’re not a subscriber, and you want to keep getting the latest news and analysis from inside the micromobility movement delivered straight to in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here for free. If you’d like to unsubscribe, just click that link.

Thank you for reading.

It’s essential to understand the terms of your insurance policy to avoid being caught out of pocket by a claim on a technicality. Everything from limit structures to endorsements and exclusions can impact your coverage and compliance with city requirements.

Founder Shield can provide the right expertise to assess your current coverage and advise if there are any gaps to address. Sign up for a free policy review and analysis.

#MMAmerica

In case you missed it, the early agenda for Micromobility America is officially live. On deck, we have a wrecking crew of industry heavyweights and opinion-leaders from companies like Strava, Lime, Curbed, Tier and more, with new names being added weekly.

Come see them all present on the state of the business—plus try out cutting-edge new vehicles before anyone else and network with fellow mobility enthusiasts—only at Micromobility America in the Bay Area on April 22-23. It’s going to be big.

AND!

From now until this Saturday, February 29, tickets are over 40% off the GA price. Book now before prices go up (or tickets run out).

Exhibitors and Partners

Many of the world’s most innovative tech and mobility companies will be exhibiting at Micromobility America, including micromobility startups, OEMs, charging solutions, network software providers, and more.

Does your company want to exhibit at the world’s largest event devoted to the burgeoning micromobility movement? Contact us.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Leading off, Bird is trying out a new in-app payment system called Bird Pay that enables users in the Los Angeles area to make purchases at select businesses. The scooter startup is betting that its symbiotic relationship with brick and mortar—it says that 58% of its rides start or finish in front of a local business—will give it an edge over other forms of cashless payment like credit cards, Paypal, Apple Pay, Uber Money, and more. For now Bird Pay is differentiating itself by specifically targeting local businesses, offering those that sign up greater visibility in the app and “lower fees.” | The Verge

  • Conversely, is it any surprise that cars are bad for small businesses? A new study finds that cities that drive more tend to have fewer independent restaurants and more big chains. | City Observatory

  • Tier has added about $40 million to its Series B, bringing the total size of the round to over $100 million. The company, which operates in 56 cities (33 of which are in Germany) and served 17 million rides since launching in October 2018, may be planning to branch into other product categories beyond scooters with its latest funding. | TechCrunch

  • San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed is pushing the city to adopt a congestion pricing and end free parking on Sundays. | Chronicle

  • Sadly New York’s landmark congestion pricing plan, which is scheduled to go into effect in less than a year, is being held up by federal regulators. | Politico

  • Under new transit rules, Sikh cyclists in Canberra will no longer be fined for wearing religious headwear instead of a helmet. | SBS

  • Shared, a micromobility startup known for its big-wheeled, seated scooters, has ceased operations in its only city, Portland, Oregon. | Oregonian

  • What’s going on in the European scooter market and what changes can we expect in 2020? Here are some interesting nuggets from a new report by Sifted.

    • It might take longer than expected for the U.K. market to open up. While Tier’s new COO, who is based in London, believes scooters will be legalized within the year, Voi CEO Fredrik Hjelm, who may or may not know something about what the British government is thinking, is more pessimistic.

    • “It’s so binary in France, compared to Germany,” says Hjelm. “In Germany, you can have a bad start and catch up; in France, you either get licenses and they’re worth a lot—€100ms—or you don’t get them and you have to shut down your French operations.” 

    • Tier claims to be profitable on the ride level, in part because 80% of its fleet now have swappable batteries. As for its older models, the company has refurbished and sold 3,000 of them for $750 each, including a helmet and one-year warranty, to date.

    • Voi predicts it will be “break even” financially in 2021 and may need a capital injection before then.

    • Looks like Spin is serious about going to Europe. The Ford-owned startup is currently hiring in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the U.K.

  • Coaster Cycles is deploying electric cargo bikes with DoorDash in New York City to make last-mile deliveries. | Ben Morris

  • Spain’s government plans on reducing the speed limit for cars to 18.5 mph (30 kmh) in all cities. Remember, speed limits are death limits. | Periodista Digital

  • And in Oregon, a state lawmaker is fighting just to give cities the power to set their own speed limits. | Bike Portland

  • Nearly a year after they were removed due to a brake malfunction, New York’s Citi Bike ebikes have returned. The Lyft-owned program plans to scale its electric fleet from a few hundred currently to several thousand by summer. | Streetsblog

  • Meanwhile, in much-smaller Lyon, JCDecaux just deployed 2,500 ebikes in a single night. | All French News

  • Bike rentals are rebounding in China after a big decline when the outbreak of coronavirus started. | Technode

  • Electric moped maker Unu is breaking into the ride-share game in Rotterdam. | Electrive

  • Jump is bringing 400 dockless ebikes to Melbourne next month for a one-year trial. | ABC

  • In 2011, Dallas pledged to be build 1,300 miles of bike routes by 2021. Fast forward to present-day, with less than a year to go, the city is only a tenth of the way to reaching its goal. | Observer

  • In a truly fantastic interview with our friends at the No Parking Podcast, Jeffrey Tumlin, the new head of the SFMTA, had this to say about congestion and road use: “We’ve not socialized healthcare or parental leave in America. We’ve socialized driving.”

  • The city of Montreal is banning shared scooters, blaming parking management issues, among other problems. | CBC

  • Making the decision even more baffling, Montreal just extended Jump’s dockless ebike permit. (It also doubled the price of said permit.) | Journal

  • Since Germany started implementing its National Cycling Plan, there has been a 12% increase in bike trips and a 30% decrease in cyclist fatalities. | The City Fix

  • Phoenix became the first city with a Spin charging hub installed in the public right of way. | Downtown Devil

  • Vogo, an Indian micromobility startup that is backed by Ola, has raised $19 million in a new round led by LGT Lightstone. | Business Standard

  • As if the privacy questions swirling around MDS weren’t enough, a new story suggests that L.A. engaged a murky cast of for-profit consultants to help craft the data sharing protocol. (Relatedly, Uber will appear in front of the California State Senate today to argue why it believes MDS violates users’ privacy rights.) | Citylab

  • According to a new study, owners of expensive cars are less likely to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. | Science Direct

  • Last year the Estonian IoT startup Comodule grew its revenue by 4.5x and made a profit exclusively by serving the shared scooter market.| Foundme

  • Apparently Lego’s streets are getting wider and its sidewalks are getting narrower. | The Verge

  • Should cities consider creating “Mobility Claims Boards” to evaluate injury claims related to shared micromobility services and determine liability? | Citylab

  • In explaining why Lime exited 12 markets earlier this year, the company’s head of North American government relations blames policies that place unequal burdens on scooters than cars. | Lime

  • A new study from the German government concludes that micromobility will gain mode share faster if it is integrated into existing public transit offerings. | Traffic Technology Today

  • A general update on Wind: The micromobility startup is targeting Milan to deploy next, introducing ebike service in Tel Aviv, and developing shared helmets for dockless scooters. The company also revealed that its new swappable battery, which lasts 37-50 miles (60-80 kilometers) and must be charged every 3-4 days, accounts for 40% of the total costs of its scooters. | Globes

  • Ordinarily we don’t like to loan our soapbox to cranks, but this story about a bike shop owner in San Francisco who opposes efforts to ban cars on Valencia Street because his customers drive is simply a masterclass in NIMBYism. Bravo. | Streetsblog

Jobs to Be Done

Welcome to our jobs board.

Every week we post new career openings in the newsletter in hopes of connecting our smart and talented readers with exciting professional opportunities in the world of mobility.

Find out who’s hiring below and sign up for the newsletter to see more listings every week.

If your company is looking to make its next hire, and you want to reach thousands of qualified candidates who live and breathe mobility, you should list with us. No charge.

Hit reply to find out more about being listed.

Stay Connected

Want more up-to-the-minute news and announcements? Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter and check out our website.