SF and Santa Monica expected to award official permits to scooter companies today

The day has arrived. After more than two months of waiting , the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency( SFMTA) is poised to determine which of 12 companionships will successfully procure one of the city’s five tolerates.

The grants are sizzling merchandises for those rivalling for scooter sell preeminence, which includes Uber and Lyft, which applied for permits to operate e-scooters despite not yet having any. San Francisco is a key marketplace for e-scooters; for some of these companies, failing to receive a permit could make the end of the road.

Santa Monica, where Bird is headquartered, is also are forecast to award four countenances for its electrical scooter and bicycle pilot program today. Bird is the most valuable scooter startup; it reached a$ 2 billion valuation in June after developing hundreds of millions in risk capital fund.

Bird, Lime and Spin — all of which applied for grants — were the three original musicians in the San Francisco scooter game. They liberated their sail of scooters in the city in March without allow. As a solution, the SFMTA asked the companies to temporarily remove the scooters in late May and initiated a permit processas part of the 24 -month pilot program.

As part of the program, the city will allow only 2,500 scooters on the streets at once. Those picks are required to provide user education and policy, share the data of the expeditions with the city, have a privacy program that protects user data and furnish a low-income plan to their riders.

The other fellowships that applied for permissions are Scoot, Ridecell, USSCooter, Skip, Ofo, Razor and Hopr( Cyclehop ).