Will Topeka lose its bird scooters after bankruptcy report?

TOPEKA (KSNT) - The future of Topeka's Bird scooters could be in jeopardy with the recent announcement of Bird Global filing for bankruptcy.

Bird Global, based out of Miami, Florida, announced on Dec. 20, 2023, that it was filing for bankruptcy as it tried to stabilize its finances. The company's long-standing goal has been to provide environmentally friendly transportation options to people in North America, Europe and other cities around the world since it took off in 2021.

KSNT 27 News reached out to City of Topeka spokeswoman Gretchen Spiker regarding this recent bankruptcy announcement. She confirmed the city is not aware of any plans for the scooters to leave at this time. We have reached out to Bird Global for comment on future plans for the scooters in Topeka.

Topeka was one of the rare few cities that received a share of Bird scooters back in 2021. At launch, a total of 400 scooters were made available to Topekans for use around the city through the Bird app.

The scooters have had a rocky relationship with Topeka in recent years with locals raising concerns over safety concerns with the transportation option soon after they were opened to the public. This was followed by several instances where people were found to be using the bird scooters to draw penises on some local sidewalks, making Topeka's City Council consider pulling the plug on the entire thing.

While the bird scooters are a convenient source of eco-friendly transportation across the city, you may not be seeing many around town currently as they could be in winter storage. Bird adjusts how many scooters it deploys in each city during the winter months with some cities seeing partial or complete reductions determined on a city-by-city basis.

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