Bird and Lime offer electric scooters for rent in cities across America. The companies pay a few dollars a pop to an army of people who prowl the streets for the scooters and take them home to charge.
Electric scooters zoom through traffic in many cities these days, and have the potential to take cars off the road. But experts worry that the many riders who forgo safety gear are taking big risks.
As battery technology improves and cities get denser, some West Coast companies are targeting millennial and Gen X consumers by producing cheaper and greener mopeds, scooters and e-bikes.