Leading Micromobility Operators Collaborate to Provide Guidelines for Successful City Partnerships

Moving beyond pilots: Australia should adopt European micromobility guidelines for sustainable and successful shared transportation

By Stephen Coulter and Krystyna Weston, Co-Founders of Zipidi

Five of the top shared micromobility operators, Lime, Tier, Voi, Dott, and Superpedestrian, have joined forces to provide guidelines for cities seeking to partner with micromobility providers. Together, these operators represent over 750,000 micromobility vehicles across 37 European cities and have completed millions of trips. They endorse city-led partnerships based on tenders and do not advocate for “free market” models, which can lead to an oversaturation of operators and vehicles that may increase financial burdens for cities.

To promote successful and sustainable shared eScooter, eBike, and other micromobility vehicle programs, the operators have developed ten key recommendations. They believe uniform regulations and operating conditions will improve outcomes from shared micromobility.

Zipidi urges Australia and NZ to adopt these recommendations as a step toward worldwide consistency.

The ten recommendations for regulating European micromobility programs are as follows:

1. Select an appropriate number of operators to avoid oversaturation while providing for healthy competition, consumer choice, and easy administration.
2. Allow for fleet sizes that balance reliability with tidiness.
3. Ensure contract lengths are long enough for riders to become familiar with micromobility as a suitable transportation option.
4. If fees are imposed, they should cover the reasonable and transparent costs of administering a program and the use of public space. Fees should be commensurate with those paid by operators of similar transportation modes.
5. Adopt uniform and automated data-sharing through MDS and GBFS protocols, which are the most commonly used globally.
6. Design selection processes to identify operators best suited to provide quality service over the long term, tailored to a city’s unique needs.
7. Provide contiguous operational areas that maximize access to key destinations.
8. Provide ample parking to ensure convenience, reliability, and tidiness.
9. Limit speeds to 20–25 km/h to ensure rider safety.
10. Encourage but do not mandate helmet use.

The more detailed version of these recommendations is available here and makes perfect sense for any city, regardless of its size. In Australia, helmets are legally required, but the European recommendations suggest that helmets should be encouraged but not mandatory.

Transparent fees are a critical recommendation and one of the issues causing concerns worldwide. Some cities have encouraged higher fees or accepted bids with higher financial incentives, resulting in suboptimal outcomes or unsustainable operations. This ultimately can lead to operator withdrawals and cities losing a key transport option.

While public transport fares are typically subsidised by 50% to 70%, micromobility transport providers have to pay to play and do not receive any subsidies. Nonetheless, they provide infrastructure as a public service at zero cost to cities.

In conclusion, proven best practices have been developed based on five years of experience across hundreds of cities and millions of rides. Australia does not need more micromobility “pilots.” Instead, cities should follow these recommendations to ensure successful and sustainable shared micromobility programs.