Why micromobility is one of the keys to the future of our cities

Last Friday, defying the “Friday curse” which means that few events take place that day, IE Business School presented a report (in Spanish) on micromobility and sustainable urban mobility, on which Gildo Seisdedos and I have been working for the last few months.

The study is a review paper that includes a huge amount of material published since the growth of urban micromobility, specifically since some companies unilaterally began to deploy fleets of untethered and equally importantly, unregulated bicycles or scooters.

That initial free-floating phases has seen city halls around the world try to impose regulations on the use of bikes and scooters while trying not to erode the possibilities that this type of vehicle could offer urban mobility while protecting pedestrians from scooter riders using the sidewalk and then blocking it when they dump their rides after reaching their destination.

The pattern of technological diffusion has been similar to other innovations: misinformation about high accident rates or criticism that these initiatives do little to reduce traffic. In practice, as the report shows, there are three stages in this process: the first, free-floating and a certain degree of anarchy; a second, when cities begin to legislate and open tenders for different providers…