Bird, a company that has operated electric scooters in D.C. since 2018, is going to the courts in hopes the judiciary will overturn the District Department of Transportation’s decision to not allow them to operate in the city in 2023.

The company filed a petition for review with the D.C. Superior Court on Friday to either grant Bird a permit or force DDOT to completely rescore Bird’s application.

DDOT has changed its permitting process many times over the years, but in 2023 it allowed up to five companies to provide shared electric bike and scooter service for the next two years. They only selected four — Lime, Lyft, Spin, and newcomer VeoRide — to provide a total of 8,220 scooters and 3,720 e-bikes.

The District uses a scoring matrix with ten categories like equity, affordability, safety, equipment, past performance, and more. The company highlighted several scoring discrepancies. When they appealed DDOT’s scoring, Bird argues the department rescored them incorrectly by re-evaluating questions they did not appeal. Bird says they were only behind the fourth company by one point, and still missed the cut-off. The court filing argues the transportation department is “unreasonably limiting” the number of permits.

In a statement, Maggie Hoffman, Bird’s Vice President of City Growth and Strategy said they’ve worked hard to be a “strong partner to the city.”

“When we became aware that our permit application had been declined through a variety of scoring errors, we quickly moved to appeal and work with DDOT on corrections. DDOT then failed to follow its own appeals process, correcting some scores and re-scoring others that hadn’t been contested.

“There is room in the regulations for five operators and we are confident that if scored accurately, our application would make Bird eligible for a permit, benefiting riders and our logistics partners in D.C.,” Hoffman said in the statement. “We’re filing this complaint because DDOT’s arbitrary and capricious decisions will harm District residents who rely on Bird, including our Fleet Manager partners.

“We’re hopeful that this failed process can be corrected by the Court and we can resolve this matter as quickly as possible.”

DDOT is reviewing the litigation and had no comment at time of publication.

Several riders noticed the disappearance since the beginning of the year. The company says its scooters had completed 500,000 rides for 2.6 million miles since it launched in D.C. The company also operates in Alexandria, Arlington, and Montgomery County. Bird also missed a passing permit score in 2020, but DDOT granted a reprieve and allowed all companies to continue operating during the pandemic.

Bird officials say they want to provide a consistent service to riders, but also to workers who pick up, charge, and drop off scooters.

The shared scooter and bike trend has been popular, but many companies have struggled to have staying power.

Revel, which had electric mopeds, left last year. Other companies that no longer operate in D.C. include Jump, Skip, Ofo, Mobike, Bolt, Razor, and more.