Public authorities need to be
sure that the roads can safely
accommodate micromobility users in
the first instance
James Gleave, Mobility Lab UK, founder and director
Above: There are
many pedestrianised
areas in Copenhagen,
meaning e-scooter
parking must be
carefully planned
provides them with journey
pattern information, enabling
them to balance supply with
demand for their services.
Bird’s Richard Corbett
explains, “There are peaks
and troughs around rush
hour, which are fairly easy
to predict. We know, for
instance, that at 6am people
begin to use our service so there
needs to be more bikes at Stratford
Station than at Here East, and vice
versa in the evenings. But our
algorithms provide us with almost
minute-by-minute visibility and
enable us to ensure that an electric
scooter can always be utilized
by a rider at the right location at
the right time.”
Clarke agrees but thinks that data
science doesn’t just provide the
foundations for the on-demand
service, but also ensures that
micromobility works in harmony
with other transport modes in a city
and in the future will slot seamlessly
into the MaaS model.
He says, “Each city we operate in
faces different challenges. In
Copenhagen and Stockholm, for
example, a large number of
commuters use bikes and there are
more pedestrianized areas than in
other cities such as London or Paris.
Therefore, in order for our
micromobility services to flourish,
we work closely with the transport
authorities to build preferred parking
zones for e-scooters.”
In Stockholm, which Clarke says
“has a high propensity of pedestrian
spaces”, all of Lime’s e-scooters “have
been equipped with state-of-the-art
geofencing technology”.
He explains, “This means that if a
rider unwittingly enters a pedestrian
zone, the speed of the e-scooter
will immediately be reduced to
just 5mph, and if in the future,
there are zones in which
scooters are not permitted to
travel in, the technology will
simply bring the e-scooter to a
safe halt before the rider could
enter such an area.”
Micromobility pitfalls
But not everyone is convinced
micromobility can work or will form
an integral part of the future MaaS
model. Take James Gleave, the
founder and director of Mobility Lab
UK, for example. Gleave, thinks that
there are both practical and
regulatory hurdles that may stymie
micromobility.
“Public authorities need to be sure
roads can safely accommodate
micromobility in the first instance.
Some will also need to be convinced
that the e-scooters and e-bike riders
don’t endanger the safety of
pedestrians and other road users. If
they think the risks are too great,
they won’t issue permits.”
Certainly, cities that are yet to
embrace micromobility, can learn
from San Francisco’s mistakes, where
regulators put mobility before
regulation. After thousands of
complaints from the public, the city
was forced to impose a temporary
ban on escooters. Now companies
wishing to operate must have
a permit to do so.
Gleave thinks there are viable use
cases, however which lend
themselves to micromobility. He says,
“It could work well in some cities –
particularly historic ones such as
Antwerp, where tight, narrow streets
make it difficult for a car to
maneuver, or Oslo, which has banned
vehicles from the city center. But, for
micromobility to become viable in
historic city locations, a robust
regulatory framework has to be laid
down first, and controlled pilot
schemes carried out.”
Sadly, sensible thinking like
this has come too late for Emily
Hartridge. Proponents of
micromobility, it seems, will
have to come up with more
arguments than that before UK
regulators consider a law change.
10 million
The number of
e-scooters Bird
recorded in its
first year
PHOTOGRAPHS: RCFOTOSTOCK, DAVID.SCH, FRANKIX, IRSTONE/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
Micromobility & MaaS |
028 Traffic Technology International January/February 2020
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
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