Scooter-sharing companies Bird and Lime abruptly deactivated their devices in Santa Monica on Tuesday and urged their supporters to swarm City Hall in an act of protest.
The move comes after a City Council committee failed to recommend the companies for Santa Monica’s electric scooter pilot program, which has been framed as a way to help the city craft regulations around the pay-per-minute devices.
Instead, a selection committee endorsed Lyft and Uber-owned Jump.
As part of their so-called “Day Without A Scooter” campaign, Bird and Lime have asked riders to protest the committee recommendation outside Santa Monica City Hall on Tuesday night, just before a scheduled City Council meeting.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Editor’s note: A video that was available in an earlier version of this post contained incorrect information about the message Bird conveyed to its subscribers, and about the city of Santa Monica’s actions in relation to Lime and Bird scooters. The video has been removed.
Bird Scooters currently unrideable in #SantaMonica. Screen grab below shows current app status @KTLA pic.twitter.com/2qXDLJHtH4
— mark mester (@mester_mark) August 14, 2018