How to Reboot Micromobility In Cities
And Make Shared Scooters A Sustainable Business
Even before the coronavirus pandemic confined us to our homes and reduced travel to essential workers and trips, our transportation system was broken. Too much car traffic, no one riding the bus, plenty of pollution, and road accidents. Now, on top of these existing problems, public transit and private transportation companies face existential financial challenges due to the COVID-19 shutdown.
Many believe shared scooter companies will have a hard time surviving in this environment, since they were already losing money on costly operations. But adjusting the regulatory regime in cities could dramatically change the cost equation for scooters. Cities will need to decide whether they want shared micromobility as part of a multimodal transportation system. If cities see the value in micromobility, they will need to revamp their regulatory programs to make these businesses sustainable for the long term.
You might ask why cities should try to save these shared micromobility companies at all. Why should cities want micromobility? It all starts with road geometry — how many people per square foot we can move with a given mode of transportation. Modes with bad road geometry — like cars — clog cities with traffic. Modes with good road geometry do not.
