Image courtesy of Bird

While city officials mull over a new ordinance to regulate bike share in Dallas, a new player in the game threw down the gauntlet.

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California-based Bird, a shared electric scooter company, is sending a letter to the CEOs of LimeBike, ofo and other bike share companies challenging them to pledge to “Save Our Sidewalks.”

The pledge asks these competing bike-share companies to do three things:

  1. Collect all their vehicles each night for inspection and repair
  2. Don’t add additional units unless they are being used three times per vehicle per day
  3. Remit $1 per day per vehicle to the city to build better bicycle infrastructure

According to a Bird spokesperson, the pledge is asking companies to collect every vehicle, not just the electrically-assisted ones. This would be a tall order for companies like LimeBike, which has thousands of bicycles all over Dallas. Bird does not have vehicles in Dallas yet, as it and other companies with electrical vehicles are working with the city to figure out how to best launch the product.

In the letter, Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden writes, “Although we are competitors, we all share a passion for the transformation that we are all working to bring about. But as an industry of innovators, we need to lead not just on technology, but on social responsibility. We hope that all of you join us in this S.O.S. Pledge to help our cities thrive.”