They showed up one day, unexpectedly, like a gift from Santa. One hundred small, black, electric scooters, scattered throughout downtown Louisville.

And then, 30 hours later... they were gone.

It turns out that other cities have experienced the same phenomenon, thanks to a California-based company called Bird.

The city says it had been working with Bird on how to regulate the scooters but that the company launched prematurely. So Louisville asked Bird to pull the scooters and the company complied.

Now, the Bird is back. An agreement between the company and the city allows the scooters to be rented and driven inside the Watterson Expressway. But that agreement expires on September 8.

WFPL's Amina Elahi has been covering the scooter saga and she joins us today on Recut to talk about how scooters could fit into the local transit ecosystem.