MICROMOBILITY
current learning across areas including usage, safety, and environmental impacts”, and explore changing travel patterns since the pandemic. Richard Dilks, chief executive of shared transport charity Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK), told BikeBiz that all the signs so far point to the trials of shared e-scooters in England being a “huge success”. “The most recent figures we have gathered show that since the trials started in July 2020, they have attracted a total of 2.7 million users who have taken 42.2 million trips,” said Dilks. “When you consider that these figures only relate to trials in some parts of England and that they require riders to hold a driving licence, it is clear that the wider potential demand for e-scooters is enormous.” Dilks added that it’s “crucial” that the Government moves forward with plans to legalise e-scooters as soon as possible, “ensuring that they can be used safely and responsibly”. On the future of shared e-scooter schemes, Lime welcomed the move to extend UK trials as “it gives some medium-term certainty to cities across the country, and the millions of residents who rely on these vehicles”, however said “we still need regulation for long-term success in the UK, and for us to be able to commit long term investment on e-scooters”. “As part of this, private e-scooters still need to be regulated with minimum hardware standards introduced that are on par with shared e-scooters,” they added. “On a global level, shared e-scooter schemes have been tremendously successful, adding redundancy into existing transport networks and providing a last-mile option for those connecting to trains and buses. We believe cities will continue looking to integrate shared e-scooters and view them as the useful tool they are in serving residents with low-cost, zero- emissions transport.”
Young industry More big e-scooter news from recent months has been operators Dott and Tier merging, which will “create the champion shared mobility operator in Europe, with the scale and expertise to accelerate towards profitability and capture the growing demand for shared services as cities transition towards more sustainable transport”, said Andreas Weinberger, chief operating officer at Tier Mobility. “Tier and Dott are joining forces to serve 125 million annual trips in over 20 countries.” On the profitability of shared e-scooter schemes,
Weinberger pointed out that it is still a young industry, so will take some time to become profitable. “In the first years, Tier and many other shared micromobility companies have invested massively in growth and expansion. “As a result of the enormous external challenges the tech
sector currently faces, Tier has moved away from the strong focus we had on rapid growth and geographic expansion that defined the first few years of the business, and towards
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ensuring an increased return on investment for our current footprint. We have also taken the decision to stop or pause specific projects and work streams that can’t currently demonstrate a clear near-term path to profitability.” On the future of shared e-scooter schemes, Weinberger said the future is going to look “very different”, especially in countries like the UK which still has very car-centric urban infrastructure.
“The pressures on improving air quality, making mobility more sustainable and tackling traffic congestion are not going to abate if a fairly radical change to the urban landscape doesn’t happen.
“Urban populations are only projected to increase, and
the way we live and work has just undergone a dramatic and sudden shift, with the traditional financial engine of public transport, commuting, being reduced, while journeys in the local area around where people live has increased, bringing with it increased car traffic, and with online shopping deeply entrenched in people’s lifestyles, there are more and more delivery vehicles on our streets than ever before. “We can’t widen the streets in our cities, especially in the centre of cities like London or Paris which are hundreds of years old, and even if we could widen the streets, this would only induce demand and make the issue worse. Something has to give, and for the sake of our health and environment it must be the reallocation of space away from the car.” Weinberger said the reason why the micromobility industry is “so exciting” is how much impact it has made while still being very young. “Legislation is playing catch-up, and we are really only seeing the beginning of what light electric vehicles like e-scooters or pedal-assist bicycles and cargo-bikes can do. “To get people out of their cars there needs to be an easy
to access alternative, and this is where shared-mobility and better integration of services steps in. In the future, the flexibility and ease of use of shared services will trump the benefits of owning and using a private car. “The future is looking distinctly bicycle and e-scooter shaped.”
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