Bird is planning to build a new hub in Paris and hire 1,000 people over two years to help spur the growth of its scooter-sharing service across the European continent. Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden said the hub will be the Santa Monica-based company’s “second European home.”
Bird first launched its dockless, electric scooter rental business in Paris last August. Since then, its scooters have become a ubiquitous sight in the City of Lights. The hub will complement Bird’s service center in Paris, where employees perform maintenance on the company’s fleet of e-scooters.
But the promise to create 1,000 jobs is unlikely to derail the city’s effort to clamp down on the spread of e-scooters. A dozen startups operate approximately 20,000 scooters in Paris, a number that is expected to double by the end of the year. And the lack of regulations surrounding their use and storage has prompted Paris officials to impose a list of fines for infractions.
Starting July 1st, a spot fine of 35 euros ($40) will be levied on bad parking, while those caught on the sidewalk will be hit with a 135-euro ($152) penalty. A speed limit of 20 km/hr (12.5 mph) has been imposed across the capital.
Paris police are stepping up their enforcement, according to Reuters. More than 1,000 tickets have been issued and about 600 scooters impounded, and a new surveillance force has been set up.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has described the scooters as “anarchic,” while transport minister Élisabeth Borne told Le Parisien the city was experiencing “the law of the jungle.”
Bird said the decision was driven by a desire to build up its market in Paris, not to placate policymakers. “France, and especially Paris are important markets for Bird globally, which drove this decision,” Patrick Studener, head of Bird in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said in a statement. “Paris has been extremely welcoming to new modes of transport in an effort to reduce car usage.”