Micromobility: an essential service?

In the last few weeks, governments across the globe have been inundated with new decisions they never before had to consider. How to keep citizens safe, how to make cities work when people are not supposed to gather together, and how to ensure that economic activity doesn’t grind to a total halt. 

They have had to make hard choices to ensure health systems are maintained, and provide clear instructions on how to be safe under new and unusual daily conditions.

In many cities, this has meant a drastic decrease in access to transportation - helping ensure limited movement. In nearly all cases individual micromobility options have been ordered closed being deemed as non-essential. Beam has worked hard to adhere immediately to all conditions presented by cities, and we look forward to rolling our e-scooters again soon. 

It is easy to dismiss micro-mobility as a non-essential service but coming out of this global challenge, and we hope to drive discussions about including micromobility as part of the essential transportation network. In fact, some conversations about including micromobility as part of a city’s essential transportation network are already taking root.

Rideshare v. Micromobility 

A key idea being used to fight CoVID-19 is “social distancing.” In short, this means limiting close interactions with other people. In a shared transportation option such as a taxi or rideshare, this is next to impossible. While many rideshare companies have suspended group or pool options, an interaction between a sole passenger and driver nevertheless creates risk. 

Micromobility is also easier to sanitize - with many fewer touchpoints than a shared car and being open to the air, the ability for a virus to be transferred between passengers is lower. Micromobility also means that social distancing can be maintained. There is no need to have any close contact with another person during any part of an e-scooter trip. 

Supporting small business

One of the hardest-hit industries in the fight against CoVID-19 has been food and beverage. From large multi-national chains to local cafes; restaurants struggle without customers in their dining rooms. Many of these businesses have adapted on the fly to offer takeout options, and third-party delivery platforms have responded rapidly to share these options with potential customers.

The bottleneck is the lack of delivery drivers. The regulatory hurdles around adding hundreds of new delivery drivers to a fleet of cars high. Few people can buy/rent a car for a short term of employment, and if you don’t have a licence, you are immediately excluded.

The Beam fleet could easily be pressed into short term operations as a delivery service. It would enable people looking for short term income support access to a vehicle, and a job, in a fast and efficient manner. It would require no long term commitment from any restaurant or app. Most importantly, it means that people can help the struggling business in their local community.

An alternative to public transport

As a result of CoVID-19, movement is restricted all over the world, but many essential services continue to need transportation options to get to their places of work. Families who usually rely on public transportation are also facing a situation where going to the grocery store is significantly more complicated.

The challenge for public transportation is that social distancing requires people to keep physical space between themselves at all times - on a bus or subway; this can be difficult to achieve. Moreover sharing a bus with 20 people is often in contravention to instructions of government authorities.

A shared e-scooter can replace a short bus or subway trip. It is an affordable option for those who frequently use public transportation but can’t afford a shared car, and it ensures that the rider can maintain physical distance. 

Beam is ready to make our e-scooters available for essential short trips to workers and families who need them. Where we operate, we have offered this support to the cities who are working to adapt to new challenges on the fly. 

How to integrate micromobility into the response to this crisis

Cities should be commended for their response to CoVID-19. At Beam we are ready to provide any support to the collective response. We also have a few ideas that could add value to the crisis response and alleviate some of the challenges faced by micromobility in being effective in supporting the recovery. These include:

• Offer deeply discounted rides for those without cars
• Provide front line workers e-scooters as needed
• Mandate operators to increase their sanitization and monitoring of their fleet
• Open up dedicated public transportation lanes to e-scooters where busses have stopped
• Ensure that e-scooters can use bike lanes and another restricted area during the crisis period
• Create parking spaces for scooters at critical locations such as pharmacies and grocery stores

Challenging times call for creative solutions. Beam is ready to assist cities in any way possible to support keeping communities safe and do our part in stopping the spread of CoVID-19.