Bird Canada's baby-blue rental e-bikes, spotted parked or rolling around North Surrey, have been "a massive hit" in the first year of a pilot program here, a company rep raves.
And moving forward, says Austin Spademan, head of government partnerships, the company wants to expand its service area beyond Surrey City Centre and also include e-scooters as a second option in the “last mile” electric vehicle sharing program.
Bird operates similar e-bike/scooter programs in several other Canadian cities, but the company can offer only e-bikes for sharing in Surrey, due to provincial regulations.
In Surrey, a two-year pilot was launched last April during the 2024 Party for the Planet festival, celebrating Earth Day.
By year's end, close to 4,000 riders had ridden 40,000-plus kilometres, "which is impressive given that the program does not, as of yet, cover the full City of Surrey," reported Spademan.
"It was also a seamless first season in Surrey with just 11 complaints total about the program, as per the City of Surrey, and most of those occurred in the initial six weeks of the program launch while we were still perfecting our operations. It's been impressive how fast the program has been accepted and utilized by residents."
Users download an app to find and scan a “Bird” (e-bike), ride it, then park the vehicle after it’s no longer needed, for an “unlock” fee of $1.15 plus 38 cents per minute.
Spademan says 200 of the Birds are for rent in Surrey currently, with more possibly on the way, if and when the City of Surrey OKs an expanded service area.
A pilot-program review is due before Surrey council in May, and it's not yet clear what the recommendation(s) will be, if any.
"We'd like to increase that number (of e-bikes) and also the operating area in Surrey accordingly," Spademan suggested. "The thing is, to have more bikes there should be more territory to make that make sense.
"Newton wants it, in talks with the BIA, and we'd be very interested to serve Newton," he added. "KPU, I think broadly speaking, is supportive of more modes of transportation to get to and from campus. You've got two great strategic fits for expanding in that direction, and I think from our perspective we'd be excited to work with Surrey to potentially make that happen, if they're supportive."
As for e-scooters, they're not currently legal to operate in road right-of-way in Surrey, which is not among "participating communities" in a provincial electric kick scooter pilot program that involves 26 cities and districts across B.C. including Vancouver (where Lime is the city's vendor), Coquitlam and Richmond.
Surrey is "taking a look at options" with e-scooters, according to Spademan, "but as of right now there's no firm direction either way. But what I can say is that in terms of public engagement, we did a major event with the Surrey Local Immigration Partnership at city hall last year, and the number-one piece of feedback I heard was, you know, 'I wish you guys had e-scooters here because I don't know how to ride a bike.'
"So it's really clear to me that there's a demand for it in Surrey by riders, and we've had hundreds of comments over the past year from people who would like the scooters to use there. Generally, people want it, they're asking for it, and not everybody can ride a bike."
Complaints about the Bird Canada rental bikes in Surrey have stemmed from confusion about how the service works and why the e-bikes are parked in certain areas of the city, according to Spademan.
"For riders, sometimes they don't realize that there's designated parking only, and that they will continue to be billed if they abandon the bike," he noted.
Theft of Bird e-bikes is "not necessarily a problem, it's kind of expected" in cities like Surrey, Spademan added.
"It was a factor at the beginning of the program," he said. "This is the same across Canada where people see these. They're like, 'Oh great, a free bike,' they try to steal them and then realize they're effectively useless if stolen. They're built to not be modifiable where you can just kind of unplug something and joy-wire it and you have a personal bike or scooter. Because of that, they're actually not really good for anything."
In Surrey and most markets where Bird Canada has launched, "there's a bump right at the beginning of the program where people will attempt to take the vehicles, and then a rapid decline," Spademan elaborated.
"I'm happy to report that the theft is way, way down this year and there's two things there. One is that the vehicles are trackable and have a ton of tech that actually helps us recover them if they are taken. But two, and perhaps most importantly, if you ever try to lift one of those things, they are so heavy that they're actually not practical to move. That's probably the biggest thing. If you try to move one, it will throw your back out if it's locked. I actually don't recommend trying that."
