Scooters will return to San Francisco, but Bird and Lime aren’t invited
After more than two months of waiting, San Francisco has announced that only two scooter companies are allowed to return to the city: Scoot and Skip. The news comes as a rebuke to hometown ride-hail companies Uber and Lyft, which are both expanding beyond cars in an effort to become one-stop mobility shops. It’s also a snub to startups Bird and Lime, which are the two largest shared-scooter operators in the world; each is valued at over $1 billion.
Skip and Scoot are much smaller companies, but they will no doubt see a boost after winning permits for San Francisco. According to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), both companies will be...