Behind the scenes: Bird Canada goes walking to retrieve e-bikes

When rental e-scooters and e-bikes from Halifax’s micromobility project go astray, it’s Harry Baker’s team who tracks them down. He says the strangest place they’ve found an e-scooter was under a moving train. 

“Multiple scooters have been thrown off the bridge (on Young Avenue), but we’ve always retrieved them down below,” said Baker, the local operations manager for Bird Canada. 

“This time, somebody threw one off and we’re convinced that a train ran it over and basically dragged it all the way from the Point Pleasant Park area to Joseph Howe, where the CN Rail yard is,” he explained. 

“When we found the scooter, it was completely mangled.” 

This year marks the second season for Halifax’s shared micromobility project with Bird Canada. So far, the initiative has brought 315 e-bikes and 600 e-scooters to the city. 

Austin Spademan, Bird’s head of government partnerships, says that ridership tends to be most popular in the downtown core, where there are more accessible bike lanes. Likewise, this is also “where the friction mostly happens.” 

While Bird has established designated parking zones throughout the city, both in their app and in person, recovering tipped or mis-parked vehicles remains one of their biggest challenges. 

“Shared micromobility had never been regulated before the launch of the pilot program, so it’s something we’ve been actively working on,” says project manager Brittney MacLean.

E-bike street sweep

To mitigate mis-parking, Bird relies on a walking patrol, known as the safe streets team. Managed by Baker, they are responsible for keeping sidewalks clear, educating the public on safe riding, and ensuring devices are returned to their designated parking zones. 

Baker says the team of two begins sweeping the downtown core, either on foot or on scooter, as early as 6 a.m. 

They can also use the Bird app to locate misplaced scooters and bikes more quickly.  

“Through the operator version of the Bird app, they’re able to see where (vehicles) are maybe knocked over or aren’t inside of a designated parking space,” Baker explains.  

For example, the app will identify vehicles that have been tipped over with a yellow icon. 

Any complaints from the public are reported directly to Bird, either through the app or by email. Baker said that if he or his driving patrol cannot respond, then the safe streets team is sent out. 

So far, Spademan says they have had “30 (publicly reported) mis-parks for this year, which is down 56 per cent (from 2025).” During that time, Bird has logged more than a quarter of a million rides. 

According to MacLean, the pilot was launched to provide commuters with a more active and decarbonized mode of transportation.  

Zach Saunders, a Halifax local, says he enjoys commuting by bike and that his feelings towards the project “are mostly positive.”

“I like seeing people getting around without using cars,” he adds. 

As Bird approaches its off-season, the safe streets team is down to just two members, but Baker says the patrol typically doubles to four people during the busier summer months. 

The team could remain active up until Dec. 15, if the weather co-operates, and devices remain in use. The e-scooters and e-bikes are then picked up and stored until spring.

At the end of the year, Halifax Regional Council will reassess the city’s e-bike and e-scooter project. MacLean says that all data collected during the project will be reported “back to council for further decisions going forward with the pilot.”