In mid-August of 2018, Bird launched the first fleet of electric scooters in Tel Aviv, and this coastal, cosmopolitan Israeli city has been setting—and surpassing—urban mobility milestones ever since.
Riders in Tel Aviv have achieved a phenomenal rate of shared micromobility adoption, completing nearly 5.5 million trips on Bird electric scooters over the past two years. Perhaps even more compelling is the fact that more than one-third of these rides have historically taken place during rush hour between 8-10am and 5-7pm.
That means fewer cars on the road and less pollution in the air for a city ranked 5th worst in the world for traffic congestion as recently as 2019. It’s also led to the recent release of our Frequent Flyer loyalty program in Tel Aviv to help make consistent modeshift away from cars more appealing and accessible to all city residents.
“Two years following the introduction of Bird to Tel Aviv, we remain humbled, grateful and inspired by how shared e-scooters have been embraced throughout the city,” said Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird. “Thank you to our partners at city hall for their forward-thinking policies that make it possible for people to leave their cars at home, and make Tel Aviv more liveable for everyone.”
Beyond the rides themselves, the full story of Bird in Tel Aviv can be told through community collaborations with local organizations and policy makers. When COVID-19 spread rapidly across the globe, local medical and emergency workers in Tel Aviv were able to use Bird free of charge in order to get to and from work safely and efficiently. More recently, the team at United Hatzalah paired up with Bird to enable free e-scooter rides and safety helmets for volunteer paramedics.
Scooters have also played an important role in the government’s recent decision to grow micromobility infrastructure in Tel Aviv by more than 50% over the next 5 years. In June, when Deputy Mayor Meital Lehavi announced the initiative to create an additional 160 km of bike and scooter lanes, she said:
“It is a revolutionary plan that for the first time turns segments of bike paths into one uninterrupted network. Thanks to the support from and data shared by micromobility operators like Bird, we’ve been able to identify where new infrastructure is most needed in order to encourage modeshift and reduce our dependence on private cars.”
We’re thrilled to have played a role in the incredible success of electric scooters, as well as in the growth of cleaner transportation solutions, here in Tel Aviv. The city has come so far in two short years, and we’re excited to help riders and residents achieve the next years’ worth of mobility and community milestones together!
