Teams with Trailze to enable e-scooter riders to more easily navigate
For the last century, cities have been designed around cars, which makes them intimidating for some scooter riders. Millions of people are embracing shared electric micromobility and cities everywhere are committing more resources to the development of bike and micromobility lanes. Bird, the leader in shared electric scooter transportation, wanted to ensure that riders could more easily navigate and utilize city infrastructure. So they are teaming with Israel navigation startup Trailze to pilot Bird Maps.
Bird Maps is an app that provides turn-by-turn specialized navigation for scooter riders who want to ride in bike or micromobility lanes for the duration of their trip. This is a free standalone app, available soon on iOS and Android.
To make cities more livable
The pilot will kick off in Paris, France and Tel Aviv, Israel. It will allow riders the opportunity to enter their destination information and in turn provides audio and visual turn-by-turn navigation that optimizes for the use of bike lanes, quiet roads, and wider surface areas when possible. This is an enhancement in the rider’s experience designed to increase comfort and safety while optimizing usage of bike lanes and is the latest in a number of industry-leading safety initiatives from Bird following Helmet Selfie, safety (s.h.a.r.e. Safe Streets) events, and Warm up mode.
Trailze is remapping the urban grid with micromobility in mind, mapping safe routes based on where riders can actually enjoy riding. During COVID-19 lockdowns around the world, over 300 cities have introduced plans for more than 2600 additional miles of slow streets and temporary bike lanes.
Recognizing biking infrastructure
Paris and Tel Aviv have recently committed to and developed additional bike lanes. Working with Trailze, Bird is making it easier for riders to feel more comfortable and safe as they move about their cities without relying upon cars and hope to pave the way for increased adoption and usage of clean transportation. For the yfirst time, there’s a solution that centers on micromobility riders and considers routes optimized for use of bike lanes.
“We couldn’t be more excited to join forces with Bird, the leaders in the shared micromobility space, and use our unique navigation technology to revolutionize the way people move around in our cities,” said Ronen Bitan, CEO at Trailze.
