Developing a sustainable e-scooter program
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DISCOVER
Guidelines to help cities safely accelerate recovery
Initiatives among many of the world’s cities to reduce car use – the main factor in greenhouse gas emissions – have led to the emergence of soft mobilities, or micromobilities. This includes free-floating, or dockless, e-scooters.
Introduced in 2018, e-scooters have become fixtures in cities across the globe. E-scooter’s unprecedented uptake over the past 24 months means they now account for significant modal share. This rapid deployment has created numerous challenges, including road safety risks and cluttering of public spaces. Adding to these challenges, COVID-19 drastically changed public transit and commuting.
Additionally, COVID-19 has drastically changed public transport and commuting. Authorities need to acknowledge the public’s faith in public transport may not recover soon, and alternative modes of transit are required to help cities accelerate their recovery.
This paper explains how cities and transit agencies can look at alternative modes of transit, namely e-scooters, to help accelerate their pandemic recovery, and how to create frameworks for sustainable, low-carbon micromobility programs.
Sis themes and recommendations address:
Usage
Self-service e-scooters help pedestrians travel faster and further than ever, and in some spaces, they are replacing walking and public transit.
Health and safety
Establishing a policy of e-scooter usage in pedestrian areas and geofencing scooters accordingly are two of the safety recommendations.
Carbon footprint
A city-wide e-scooter program could complement existing or planned public policies designed to help prevent climate change.
Infrastructure
Maximizing e-scooters’ potential means weaving it into the current fabric of public spaces, such as cycle path networks, parking areas, traffic conflicts, permitted speeds, etc.
Data management
By retrieving and analyzing operating data from e-scooters average distance, main journeys, storage facilities, places with the highest accident rates, etc. is essential to building a safe, efficient and environmentally friendly micromobility framework.
Pricing
Pricing can serve as a lever for mobility management.
