What eScooters Can Do For Cities Like Charlottesville

“Lime-S Scooters” is licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0

Despite their tendency to be captured on viral videos in flames, electric scooters have the potential to make a revolutionary impact on cities around the country. Gone are the days when the carless commuter needed to brave the physical effort of riding a bike, the time commitment of walking, or the crowds and fickle schedules of public transportation. Even ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, once lauded as the perfect solution for on-demand transportation, have come under intense scrutiny after the murder of a University of South Carolina student who got into a car she believed was that of her Uber driver. For many, placing full trust in a driver they have never met before is increasingly becoming too far a bridge to cross. While an Uber or a taxi is still the safest option for long-distance trips or transportation for intoxicated persons, electric scooter companies have stepped up and marketed their product as the optimal method for regular, short-to-intermediate distance trips. Local governments around the nation have a responsibility to continue conducting research and trials to figure out how best to deploy these services and regulate their use, but they should not restrict access without good reason. A cost-benefit analysis shows how much communities like Charlottesville have to gain from widespread scooter use.

The reasons to have one or two dedicated networks of electric scooters in any city are clear. They make it easier and more convenient for people to move around. This increases the efficiency of students and workers within the city. A walk that earlier would have taken thirty minutes at three miles per hour now only takes six while scootering at fifteen miles per hour, the maximum speed limit for electric scooters in the pilot program developed by the City of Charlottesville. They can also operate effectively as “first-mile/last-mile” options, giving commuters a means of transportation to or from other transit options where the majority of a longer commute takes place. In the past, services like Uber have been floated as potential solutions to the first-mile/last-mile problem. For many people, however, issues with safety or price make Uber infeasible for this purpose. This is where eScooter companies like Lime and Bird have the potential to fill a massive hole that has plagued public transit officials and urban planners for decades. 

In addition to pure ease of movement, electric scooters also have an important role to play in reducing the need for cars in urban settings. This is sorely needed for a number of reasons. First, the carbon-neutral nature of electric scooters when compared to the gasoline-burning nature of most cars means that they can help lessen our contributions to climate change. We need to continue pivoting toward clean, renewable forms of energy in order to move away from generating the necessary electricity from fossil fuels, but this is a step in the right direction. 16.8% of overall emissions in the United States come from cars. if we can end our reliance on cars for short-distance travel in urban areas, we can put a sizeable dent in that figure. Learning to rely less on cars can also help us improve the state of our urban areas by letting us allocate less space to parking needs. For example, the city of Charlottesville currently faces a housing crisis. While the easiest solution to ease this crisis would be to loosen zoning laws, another way to partially ease the burden could be to convert some areas currently used as parking lots or parking garages into high-density housing. This would be made feasible by an established network of shared scooters within the city. A survey done by Charlottesville indicated that 31% of workers in the city who drive to work are within walking distance of their workplace. Electric scooters give this slice of this workforce a viable alternative to driving that is faster than walking and less effortful than biking. We also know that people will be open to making the switch to electric scooters from walking and biking, as a Lime survey of city trial programs found in their early-adoption phase that 20% of citizens reported using Lime scooters to travel to restaurants or stores. This number can only rise over time, as scooters become an increasingly accepted means of transit in cities around the nation.

One of the most important aspects of the rise of electric scooters is the help it can offer the middle-to-low income Americans that make up the backbone of any city’s demography. Many of these people currently depend on walking, biking, or public transport for movement around urban areas, which presents problems for those in this societal bracket. Many do not have the time to walk, and have physical limitations that make cycling impossible. Where a richer person might use a car, many of these poorer families must look elsewhere.  A 2014 study by the National Household Travel Survey found that 98% of families making at least $100,000 a year owned at least one car. At the same time, it found that only 76% of families at or below the poverty level had access to at least one car. In that study, researchers also pinpointed a clear increase in the real cost per mile of driving a car since 2000, which makes car ownership a real obstacle for lower-income Americans. Electric scooters have the ability to help these people achieve a greater degree of mobility than they could while walking, all without requiring a significant and depreciating investment in a car. As illustrated before, electric scooters can also increase access to and from public transportation, helping it achieve the goal public planners intended of equitable and easy movement.

With all of these benefits in mind, it’s important to consider some of the bumps in the road that these pilot programs have encountered. These problems can be annoyances, like parked scooters being left in the path of pedestrian traffic, or legitimate safety issues, like scooter drivers being unsafe and reckless in traffic. These issues demonstrate the need for an active government effort to establish rules and regulations that enforce responsible scooter behavior. Lime and Bird’s apps already incorporate functionalities that try to force users to park in acceptable spots. They do this by not ending a given ride session until the user uploads a picture of where they’ve parked their scooter. These pictures are reviewed by the company, and violators can theoretically have their riding privileges suspended. Of course, people continue to park irresponsibly anyway, which indicates a need for stronger enforcement by local governments. A mechanism to identify and fine users who repeatedly park illegally is probably a good place to start. Likewise, to address concerns that scooter riders are riding dangerously, traffic officers need to treat them as they would treat a bicyclist who’s not following the rules of the road. This will not require any additional training for police, as the rules governing scooter use are functionally the same as those governing bicycle use. Whether that is cracking down on helmetless riders or riders using their scooters on the sidewalk, it will be their task to make sure that car drivers, scooter riders, and pedestrians stay safe.

Lime and Bird’s electric scooter pilot programs are reminders of what publicly-sponsored private innovation has to offer our communities. I only began using electric scooters a few months ago and have already come to greatly appreciate their convenience. Car parking is highly limited on a college campus, but there is plenty of space for scooters. I can only imagine what they have to offer to the tired commuter in need of a way to get home from the bus stop, or the businessman who needs to get to a meeting eight blocks away in eight minutes. If the name of the game is efficiency, electric scooters are a winning idea. But not only are they efficient; they are cheaper, cleaner, and simpler. They are a peek into a future where technology will give us freedom that we could not have dreamed of even five years ago. Local governments have a responsibility to enable this future and face its challenges head-on.