Bird scooters arrive in El Paso; city orders confiscation

Electric scooters have arrived in El Paso, and city officials aren’t happy about it.

The El Paso Times reports that the Los Angeles-based company Bird appears to have dropped off its scooters Friday in downtown and on the campus of the University of Texas-El Paso. The newspaper says Bird beat a local service, Glide Scooter Sharing, that said in October that it would soon start rentals.

El Paso’s planning and inspections director has instructed code enforcement officers to confiscate any Bird scooters they see.

That follows the pattern in other cities as electric scooters proliferate: Companies drop off scooters without warning and many city governments push back, sometimes with legal action.

Bird told the newspaper that it would “look forward to growing a partnership with city officials and community leaders.” It declined to comment about the apparent city order to stop operating. El Paso is not listed on its website as a city where it’s currently operating.