Shared Mobility Round-up: August

Welcome to our shared mobility round-up, where we will be collating all the top shared transportation articles and headlines every month! ??????

IN THE NEWS THIS MONTH

MICROMOBILITY

Joyride opens micromobility e-commerce shop for fleet owners - July 29, 2022?

Joyride has launched Joyride Garage, an e-commerce marketplace for micromobility hardware. The marketplace is automated and personalized, being able to work with orders ranging from four to 4,000 vehicles, which will come integrated with Joyride’s existing software platform. The company is kicking off with partnered inventory from the likes of ACTON, Segway, Okai, Aike, Gra and Feishen, but the Garage will be updated on an ongoing basis with new hardware options.?

Neuron launches an online academy for rider safety and education - July 27, 2022?

The new ScootSafe Academy platform, will be a digital extension of Neuron’s popular in-person #ScootSafe events. ScootSafe Academy will introduce targeted online education aimed at improving the behavior of riders who have broken the rules. Riders will be able to view local riding rules and receive incentives (including free credits towards their future rides) to watch educational videos, and for participating in quizzes and games.?

UK’s E-scooter trial zones will not be expanded - August 2, 2022?

The UK government will not expand the e-scooter trial zones during their planned extension until 31 May 2024. Existing trials will run up to 30 November 2022. Local authorities can then choose to withdraw from the trials or continue with an extension to 31 May 2024.?

Bolt eyes micromobility expansion as firm quadruples in size - August 15, 2022?

The Estonian company currently operates in 45 countries and more than 500 cities around the world – an increase of more than 200% since before the pandemic. Bolt is also advertising for 350 jobs roles, with a view to hiring 700 new employees still in 2022. Bolt has tripled its customer numbers to over 100 million since the start of 2020, adding more than two million new drivers, and doubling the size of its workforce to over 3,000 employees. The company’s plan is to operate 230,000 e-scooters and e-bikes by the end of the year.?

Oakland, California, planning e-bike library to cut congestion and carbon - August 9, 2022?

The city intends to provide a yet-to-be-determined mix of e-bikes and adaptive cycles, including side-by-side tandems, tricycles, cargo bikes and handcycles. OakDOT and its partner GRID Alternatives plan to contract with local bike shops to provide maintenance and instruction on how to use the vehicles. The plan calls for 500 bikes but the total may be less.?

GoGiro runs successful tourism e-scooter pilot with big hotel brand - August 9, 2022

Micromobility tourism platform GoGiro has run a successful pilot with Four Points by Sheraton in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The GoGiro Experience Platform allows the hotel to select up to 20 tourism tours that guests could visit while riding its e-scooters. By creating a digital tour guide, Four Points by Sheraton was able to generate additional revenue as customers spent money in places with which the hotel partnered.?

Toronto street pilot data reveals increase in active travel?- August 15th, 2022?

Data has been collected from the ActiveTO Midtown Complete Street pilot, which was launched in April 2021 as part of the City’s pandemic mobility recovery strategy. The pilot provides support for local businesses and surrounding communities by expanding outdoor patio areas, improving safety and comfort for all road users, and providing a safe and protected bike lane along the Line 1 subway. The data released shows significant increase in both foot traffic and cycling in analyzed areas.

Dance makes e-bikes more accessible with child seat launch - August 16th, 2022?

German micromobility operator Dance is addressing the needs of families with children by giving them the option to rent a child seat to fit on their e-bike. This is being done in partnership with Thule, a Swedish manufacturer of child seats and bike trailers.?

TIER unveils in-app test to tackle ‘drink-riding’ - August 18th, 2022?

The test asks users to match the angle of their phone with an angle displayed on a screen. Riders will be required to complete this 3 times within a set time frame. If a rider passes all screens within the time limit, they can take out a TIER vehicle. Those that fail will be advised to use an alternative form of transport through integrations with local taxi services that link to riders directly. The new safety test also comes shortly after research in Oslo, one of TIER’s core markets, which found that 4 in 10 of all injuries on e-scooters involve intoxicated riders.?

New German portal showcases the subjective safety of bicycle paths - August 16th, 2022?

The web-portal highlights what infrastructure should look like if it is to be experienced as ‘safe’ by the rider. The new portal, which is intended to act as a point of reference for future developments, allows the comparison of 1,700 cycling scenarios and infrastructure solutions. Data is based on an online survey of approximately 22,000 participants and 400,000 reviews.?

Less joyriding and more commuting, finds Voi e-scooter survey - August 25th, 2022?

Voi has released its annual global user survey, here are some of the key findings:?

- The modes of transport mostly substituted by the use of shared scooters were by far walking (almost 40%) and public transport (30%), followed by private bikes (aprox. 13%) and private cars (aprox. 8%); - Over 55% of users combine the use of e-scooters with public transport.

- The primary purpose for riding a scooter was social events (59%, compared to 42% in 2021), followed by commuting (48%, compared to 28% in 2021). There was also a decline in use for joyrides (from 30% in 2021 to 22%) and tourism (from 41% in 2021 to 30%), which shows a shift in patterns.?

- Two-thirds of riders say the existence of e-scooters makes them use cars less?

E-scooters rolling into Blackfalds, AB - August 26th, 2022?

Roll Technologies will be bringing e-scooters into Blackfalds for a two-year pilot program. The Town council approved the rollout during its August 23 meeting. This will be Canada’s first connected e-scooter system, as both Lacombe and Red Deer have implemented Roll in their communities, and the three communities will be interconnected through a safe trail system. The trial program will be at no cost to the Town of Blackfalds.?

‘People buying scooters skewed towards economically disadvantaged,’ says Halfords micromobility director - August 26th, 2022?

In an article tracking sector trends for bank Natwest Paul Tomlinson, the director for cycling and electric mobility at high-street chain Halfords, said that Scooters can play an important role in democratizing electric transport. According to him “electric scooter buyers in the UK are generally younger and more likely to be financially deprived. If the cost-of-living crisis is here to stay, scooters can help the public travel for less than a car and are cheaper in many cases than public transport”.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

GPMTD to launch new paratransit pilot in Washington D.C. - August 2, 2022?

The Greater Peoria Mass Transit District (GPMTD) has announced that it is introducing a six-month paratransit pilot service in Washington D.C. for its underserved urban area. The program will be operating this service for individuals aged 18 to 59, 8:00 to 18:00, Monday through Friday.

Public-private partnership to provide free transport to low-income residents in Pittsburgh - August 17th, 2022?

The City of Pittsburgh has partnered with Spin and three mobility service companies to provide free access to shared mobility and public transit services to 50 low income residents as part of the pilot project. The project is intended to help improve residents’ access to jobs, education and basic services, helping boost their socio-economic status. In total, 100 people will take part in the pilot and will be randomly allocated to two groups: 50 of them will receive free access to transportation services including public transport, Spin scooters, POGOH bikes, and Zipcar, and 50 of them will not to compare results.?

CARSHARE

European EV rental startup UFODrive launches in San Francisco - August 4, 2022?

UFODrive, a Europe-based electric vehicle rental company, landed in San Francisco on Thursday, marking the startup’s expansion into the U.S., following the company’s rapid growth in 16 cities across Europe since its founding in 2018. The European company offers both EV rentals and subscriptions, and plans to expand to Austin and New York this year, as well.?

RIDESHARING

Uber tie-up with Omio adds train and coach booking to app — starting with UK - August 2, 2022

Uber is testing adding train and coach travel to its app in the U.K. so customers can book longer distance ground travel via a fully integrated tie-up with Berlin-based multimodal travel platform, Omio. While Omio’s own app includes non-ground transport options (like ferries and even flights) he says its platform remains strongest in inventory terms for booking train and coach/bus travel.?

Uber, Lyft post-pandemic ridership recovery continued in Q2 - August 5, 2022

Uber reported its quarterly revenues grew 105% year over year, while Lyft’s revenues for Q2 grew 30% over its Q2 2021 performance. Both Uber and Lyft gained more drivers in their systems, helping to reduce wait times, executives from the companies said. Lyft executives said that bike and scooter rides more than doubled in Q2 compared with the first quarter. First-time users of those vehicles grew 7% in the first half of 2022 and more than 2.4 million people tried Lyft-operated bikes and scooters for the first time last year.?