Shared scooter data: Fewer rides, maybe due to snowy winter, but Bird 'doubling down' on Bloomington

So far this year, significantly fewer rides have been taken on Bird electric scooters this year than in 2024, despite the fact that Bird no longer faces any competition in Bloomington's shared scooter market. That's based on the numbers available in the city of Bloomington's B Clear data portal.

Bloomington licenses its public right-of-way to shared use electric scooter companies. The fleets for such companies have to include bicycles—which are included in the data under scooters. Leaving the market late last year was Lime. VeoRide stopped doing business in Bloomington at the end of 2023.

Bird's year-to-date numbers in 2025 are lagging last year's total scooter market (which in 2024 also included Lime) by more than 50%—an average of 89 daily trips on Bird scooters in 2025 compared to 201 daily trips on Bird and Lime scooters combined in 2024. But so far this year, Bird is also lagging behind its own performance in 2024—with an average of 89 daily trips this year, compared to 170 in 2024.

Jimmy Gilman, who is Bird's director of partnerships and policy, responded to an emailed query from The B Square by acknowledging the diminished numbers, but also confirmed that Bird is looking to stay in the Bloomington market. Gilman wrote: "While it did take us some time to scale up operations after the harsh winter, we are doubling down on our investment in Bloomington."

The colder temperatures and increased snowfall in 2025 compared to 2024, which Gilman cites as reasons for the decreased ridership, are confirmed in the NOAA numbers for Bloomington. For the first three months of the year, the average daily temperature in 2025 was almost 6 degrees colder than in 2024—34.6°F compared to 40.4°F. And 2025 featured double the amount of snowfall—16.8 inches, compared to 7.1 inches in 2024.

Gilman wrote that for the big snow on January 21 this year, Bird completely pulled its scooters off the street for two days, because of snow buildup in the parking corrals. In contrast, the fleet did not have to be pulled at all during the winter of 2023–2024.

Part of doubling down on Bloomington includes shipping 300 new devices into Bloomington, according to Gilman—to increase the number of vehicles that are deployed, so that more rides can be taken. The city of Bloomington's data confirms that Bird's April numbers were better than in March. In March, Bird deployed an average of 104 scooters a day, which resulted in an average of 100 rides. Those numbers nearly doubled in April to an average of 174 scooters deployed per day and 204 rides taken.

In April, there were two days when there was a noticeable spike in scooters deployed and rides taken—April 25 and April 26. Those two dates correspond to the Little 500 bicycle races for women and men. On April 26, 520 trips were taken, which is in the ballpark of the numbers that are typically seen in the fall, when ridership has historically trended heavier than in the spring.

Over the years, Bloomington's total ridership on shared electric scooters has decreased significantly. In 2019, the city's data set shows a total of a little less than 400,000 total rides—and that doesn't include the first quarter of the year. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was likely to blame for the decrease to about 180,000 total rides. By 2022, the total rides had bounced back to about 320,000 But from there, the trend has been downward. In 2023, the number dropped to about the same level as the pandemic year of 2020, at about 190,000 rides. And in 2024, the first year after VeoRide left the market, the total number of rides dropped even more, to 109,872.

The diminished number of rides and companies doing business in town means that the city of Bloomington's revenue—from the licensing and per-ride fees—is probably just about keeping pace, even though the price for both has tripled. When there were three companies, the cost of a yearly license was $10,000. The cost of a license for Bird this year as the sole company is $30,000. The fee per ride that the company has to pay the city has increased from 10 cents per ride to 30 cents per ride.

Gilman pointed to other efforts by Bird that reflect the company's commitment to Bloomington, which included participation in Bloomington's Earth Day event at Switchyard Park, where the company handed out 70 free helmets.