Urban micro-mobility: an update
Adrian Espallargas of Spanish newspaper ABC emailed me some questions about the evolution of urban bike-sharing services for this Spanish-language article.
Basically, we’re seeing two trends: the growth and consolidation of an industry that was born in an anarchic and unregulated manner, which in many cases began to deploy bikes on the streets without permission, generating problems ranging from randomly abandoned bikes and scooters to the safety of pedestrians, which city councils had to manage. At the same time, these same municipalities have generally reduced the number of competitors by granting fewer and fewer licenses and opting for service providers that are more respectful, more cooperative in terms of information, and that better control their vehicles with, for example, geolocation algorithms that prevent them from being used in certain areas or exceeding a certain speed.
The result is, increasingly, the progressive abandonment of the dockless model as harmful to the aesthetics and functionality of cities, and its replacement by schemes where car parking spaces are used for rented bicycles and scooters, which becomes a disincentive for car use. Some major cities, such as Paris, have created powerful examples of the benefits: walking down the central Rue de Rivoli used to be noisy, smelly and even dangerous; now it is a delight because there are only…
