In the first-ever program of its kind, United Hatzalah of Israel is partnering with Bird Scooters in order to allow first responders to arrive at the scenes of medical emergencies in the densely populated areas of Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Givatyaim.
Bird Scooters will be giving United Hatzalah volunteers free access to any of their available electric scooters for use in getting to and from a medical emergency. As part of the pilot project, any medical responder will be allowed two free trips on a scooter on any given day. If the project succeeds, it may be replicated in other cities where Bird operates around the world.
Upon being dispatched to a medical emergency, United Hatzalah volunteers will receive a personalized code that will allow them to access a scooter and use it to travel to the location of the medical emergency and back. In addition, volunteers in these regions will be given their own helmets which they will need to use during the rides. All volunteers will also receive two complimentary rides on the scooters per day.
Electric scooter sharing has become an indispensable element of the micro-mobility of populations in major cities the world over. Companies such as Bird Scooters provide a large number of available vehicles that allow commuters to avoid using private cars or public transportation in order to get around.
In cities with a high volume of traffic congestion, such as Tel Aviv, traveling to a medical emergency by car can take a long time, especially when factoring in the time it takes to get through traffic and find a parking spot. This is all extra time that could be better used treating the patient if the first responder had a means of transportation such as a shared electric scooter.
Director and General Manager of Bird Israel, Yaniv Rivlin praised the new partnership. “We are very excited to launch this new partnership with United Hatzalah. Israel is considered to be a world-leader in the field of micro-mobility and we are maintaining high hopes for the continued development of transportation options for the Israeli public. Our main goal is that private cars will no longer be used and alternate methods of transportation that are smarter, more functional, and environmentally friendly, will be used in their place.”
United Hatzalah President and Founder Eli Beer spoke about the pilot program. “Through this partnership with Bird Scooters, we are adding a new tool that will increase our ability to arrive at the scene of a medical emergency and begin treatment quickly. Our network of volunteers will now become even faster thanks to this new method of transportation that is being made available to them. These scooters are all over the greater Tel Aviv area. The volunteers will now be able to locate a nearby scooter and respond to the medical emergency without having to get to their cars, travel through traffic and then find parking. This will cut our response time down to a number of seconds and will result in more lives being saved.”
In the Tel Aviv region, the demand for shared scooters has risen dramatically during the Corona era due to the desire of many people to avoid public transportation.