Big cities across the US — and steadily more cities across the rest of the world — have experienced an unimaginable influx of this new, fashionable, yet relatively dangerous mode of a ‘futuristic mobility’ sharing service. Electric scooters. Electric scooters, and especially the people utilizing them, are surely altering the way we commute on a daily basis. Where governments and politicians have spent years debating on how to implement and encourage ‘cleaner’ and ‘greener’ mobility in cities, a few Silicon Valley start-ups took action without hesitation. These start-ups are known to be battling each other for ownership of the first mile (the distance between a transportation hub and someone’s starting point) and last-mile (the distance between a transportation hub and someone’s final destination).
Where the aim was first to eliminate more cars downtown and cut on peoples’ commuting times, the introduction of these two-wheeled electric scooters has created huge debates and immense competition; locally and slowly globally. What about the safety of others? What about the image of the city? Are scooters not too dangerous? Won’t it ruin the views of certain areas? Understandable, as many go by the saying of “don’t be gentle, it’s just a rental’. Clearly, governments and cities have other priorities than sustainable mobility. Understandable for sure, considering the fact, 11 people have been killed on electric scooter sharing services in the past 14 months. But then why not work on safety regulations in order to stimulate a more sustainable form of mobility, rather than banning a seriously potential initiative completely.
Cities were overwhelmed by the concept at first, as start-ups rolled out their scooters into busy cities. They seemed to be on the verge of revolutionizing the way people would commute to and from work (first and last mile) and around the city. They also seemed to become big players in sustainable mobility solutions in city centers. However, local governments were definitely not having much of it. Permits of only a year were granted to two players early 2018 (in the San Francisco Bay Area), allowing each to only operate a small number of scooters, speed limits were forced to be adjusted, and new, smaller entrants were really struggling big time; causing them to move to other cities or towns where the demand was significantly lower. Coincidentally though, just yesterday (September 25th, 2019), the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency approved four companies for operating their electric scooters within one of the world’s most expensive cities.
Jump, Spin, Bird, Lyft, Lime, Scoot. You name it, the list goes on and on and on. Even Uber is playing the game now. However, only four players — Jump, Lime, Scoot, and Spin — have been granted a one year permit to role out 1,000 scooters, with the option to expand to 2,500 scooters, in the San Francisco Bay Area — the hub where the whole hype started. Should scooters, I mean the people on scooters, misbehave (leaving them laying on the ground, parking them in the middle of a sidewalk, parking them in front of stores or inside metro stations, or even ditching them in the wild waters of the bay) they operator will be asked to leave the city immediately, with their entire fleet. Where the governments initially wanted to introduce a ‘greener’ way of commuting, they are now pushing back the growth potential of many of these mobility start-ups for safety and city security reasons.
Taking this form of future mobility outside of the Bay Area, and across the globe, electric scooter sharing start-ups are heavily dependent on the approval from individual cities and local governments. Governments regulate the entrance of such players and enforce data-sharing — this has become a strict requirement for the service start-ups to receive permission for deploying scooters. Whether the electric scooter companies are willing to give in to these rules and regulations, is a bittersweet question the near future will undoubtedly answer for us. Or will it be easier for local, similar initiatives to grant permits in ‘their’ cities and country in order to beat the Silicon Valley start-ups to it?
Looking forward, what will the future bring? The bigger players are granted permits for a year in the area they were founded in. Slowly, they’re stepping out of their zones and expanding across the globe, aiming for similar permit grants in order to grow exponentially and really offer the world a convenient and sustainable mobility service. Undoubtedly, the future will create more competition, possibly resulting in the scooter companies to ‘behave’. However, for now, many new players will go great lengths to own that first and last mile of the average commuter.
It is interesting to see where this will lead. Is this electric scooter sharing service considered an accurate indicator of whether more people will use ride-sharing services in the future? Is it an indicator that people are willing to commute in a ‘cleaner’ and ‘greener’ manner for the environment? Does it trigger people to become more aware of their behavior toward sustainability?
Lastly, the big question is of course, “who will remain to stand, and who will manage to stand tallest?” Will the start-ups be granted permits all across the globe similar to those they were granted in the Bay Area this month, and revolutionize the future of mobility at unimaginable scales? Or will governments block these initiatives for ‘greener’ and ‘cleaner’ transportation purely for the sake of safety matters?
Or is it all just a matter of time before every user ditches their electric scooter (hopefully not literally) and purchases their very own? Interesting times ahead, that’s for sure!
