Bird's new monthly e-scooter rentals skirt city scooter restrictions

Instead of a scooter share, Bird is offering a personal e-scooter monthly lease.

Starting in San Francisco and then heading to Barcelona, Spain, the personal rentals will be available for $24.99 for the month. Bird will drop off a Bird e-scooter, charger, and lock at a selected location. After the month is up Bird comes back to your location to pick up the vehicle, charger, and lock.

For users who want their own scooter without committing to buying one, you can request a monthly rental through the Bird app. Normally, renting a Bird scooter costs $1 to unlock and 15 cents per minute. But for the month you're on the hook for charging, storing, and keeping the Bird out of harm's way.

Noticeably, the rental option is available in two cities where Bird scooter-sharing is not available. San Francisco only allows a fleet of scooters from the two companies in its pilot program, Skip and Scoot. Barcelona hasn't approved Bird to operate there, either. Bird is in other Spanish cities like Madrid and Malaga. Bird scooters are available in other Bay Area cities like Oakland, San Jose, and Santa Clara, CA.

But e-scooters as a personal vehicle aren't banned from either city, so riders can take out their e-scooters, whether they own it or rent it from someone like Bird. You still have to follow road rules and stay off the sidewalks even if it's your own or leased scooter. Unlike the scooter-share vehicles, you can't just leave your scooter anywhere once you're done riding -- hence the lock.

More cities will have the monthly rental option available later this year. Last fall, Bird unveiled the Bird Delivery option for one-day rentals, so at this point your scooting needs are covered down to the minute.