COVID-19 will make or break micromobility

March 17, 2020

This week, Uber undermines its user privacy crusade, someone (not clear who) acquires Grow, and self-driving scooters debut in Georgia, but first…

Welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by small vehicles like bikes and scooters. The reason you’re reading this email is that you signed up on our website or came to one of our events.

If you’re not a subscriber, and you want to keep getting the latest news and analysis from inside the micromobility movement delivered straight to in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here for free. If you’d like to unsubscribe, just click that link.

Thank you for reading.

With the recent COVID-19 outbreak on everyone's mind, you may be wondering how all of this will affect your business or how your insurance policy may respond to coronavirus-related claims.

Founder Shield’s got you covered. Check out their latest blog post on how different policies will respond to coronavirus claims and how you can prepare your company for this unique risk.

Triple M

What happens to cities and transportation systems when people aren’t leaving the house for weeks or months on end?

Join disruptive innovation analyst Horace Dediu for a (virtual) conversation about how the coronavirus pandemic could reshape society, work, and travel on the next edition of our subscriber-only Triple M call at 9AM PST on March 25.

Become a member of Triple M today to receive the participant information for the next video conference call.

Podcast

Escalators, elevators, and stairs. Recognizing the difference in these services is key to understanding the different jobs to be done by micromobility, say Horace Dediu and Oliver Bruce. Catch up on the duo’s latest framework on the latest episode of the podcast.

#MMAmerica

The Micromobility America conference is coming up in the Bay Area on July 16-17 for two days of can’t-miss programming, networking, and conversations. New dates, same everything else.

All the leading companies in modern mobility will be there, including speakers…

And exhibitors…

Plus, for a very limited time, tickets to #MMAmerica are $300 off the GA price. Book now before this deal goes away for good.

😷 COVID-19 Checkup

One of the big unknowns about the coronavirus pandemic is how it will hit urban mobility. How will city-dwellers get around safely during this crisis and what will the long-term economic implications of a society-wide shutdown be for the transportation sector? So far, there are no clear answers.

In the U.S., two weeks of social distancing have taken a big bite out of the total number of trips being taken across all modes. Fare revenue is way down for mass transit agencies in many major metros; ride-hail drivers say their earnings are in free fall, with a corresponding collapse in both Uber and Lyft’s stock prices; and the never-ending sea of traffic around Silicon Valley’s tech campuses has vanished overnight.

But not everyone is shuttered inside during this crisis, and for those who must go out, micromobility appears to be an attractive option. Indeed, the silver lining of this pandemic could be that commuters are switching to bikes en masse to avoid coming into contact with the coronavirus on crowded buses and trains. In NYC, for instance, cycling traffic on the East River bridges is up over 50% and Citi Bike ridership is up almost 70% compared to this time last year; similarly, in China, Meituan’s bike rentals have almost doubled in the last two weeks (for comparison, Didi’s ride-share trips are down by half in China since the outbreak started).

Yet not all micromobility services are immune to the downturn. San Francisco’s “shelter in place” order has forced Lime and other scooter startups off the streets; in Milan and Turin, dockless scooter and moped trips have sunk 70-80% since Italy’s massive coronavirus outbreak began last month.

To retain riders, Bird, Lime, and others are disinfecting their devices more frequently and issuing safety guidelines to users. Your inbox is probably full of notices from mobility apps urging you to wear gloves and use hand sanitizer on your next trip, like this one

In some corners, the COVID-19 pandemic is being met with corporate altruism and innovation. Uber is extending sick pay for drivers and Uber Eats is waiving delivery fees for independent restaurants; Unagi, Juiced, and others are offering coronavirus-related discounts to buy scooters and bikes; Czech businesses are subsidizing two weeks of free bikeshare rides for the public; and Instacart and others are pioneering “non-contact delivery.”

On the public side, some cities are using the crisis to get more serious about supporting micromobility. The city of Bogota is building temporary bike lanes to help people keep their distance during commutes; the public bikeshare system in Hangzhou is informing users on its app which stations have been recently disinfected by using a face mask icon; and the mayor of NYC has stopped his all-out war against restaurant workers who use throttle ebikes to make deliveries and is now praising them as the “frontline” in the fight against infection.

Like the economic and health outcomes, only time will tell how COVID-19 will reshape travel in cities. With micromobility, there are early signs for both pessimism and cautious optimism. While that may not sound like much, it’s a far more favorable outlook than many industries are facing at the moment.

What (Else) You Need to Know This Week

  • Leading off, as part of a sweeping modernization of its transportation code, the UK took its first baby step toward legalizing electric scooters. This spring scooters will at last be allowed on public roads in the country, starting with four trial zones: Portsmouth and Southampton; the West of England Combined Authority (WECA); Derby and Nottingham; and the West Midlands. | Guardian 

  • Uber has discovered an MDS-sized hole in its security system. Until as recently as last Tuesday, Jump was inadvertently publishing real-time data for bike and scooter trips on government websites in the U.S. cities where it operates. Uber has since fixed the issue, and says that it was never exploited. Still, the data leak comes at a bad time for the company, as it tries to positions itself as a more trustworthy defender of individual privacy than cities like LA, which are demanding access to similar real-time trip data through MDS. | Protocol 

  • Latin American scooter startup Grow has been acquired by e-commerce company Peixe. Confusingly, the initial reports stated that Grow was bought by the investment fund Mountain Nazca, but the VC firm denied these claims… stay tuned. | Reuters

  • Since January 2019, Voi says it has lowered its Paris scooters’ CO2 emissions from 121 to 35 grams per kilometer, which is on par with some public transit options. The company hit this 71% reduction in environmental impact by improving charging operations, introducing swappable batteries, increasing the longevity of its vehicles to 24 months, and recycling more hardware. To date, Voi has served 16 million rides total with 4 million users. | Intelligent Transport

  • In Paris, 16 companies have applied for a total of three permits to operate dockless scooter rentals. The French capital is perhaps the largest market for micromobility in the world and Lime alone has invested $67 million there since summer 2018. Keep an eye on this contest. | Les Echos

  • Lime has let go of 15 employees. This latest round comes after the company laid off approximately 100 people in January. | The Information

  • Relatedly, last week Lime informed almost a thousand juicers in California that it can no longer hire them as gig workers due to AB5, a new state law that makes it harder for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors. The scooter startup says it will use third-party companies to charge and collect its fleet from now on. | SF Chronicle

  • Tortoise’s self-driving scooter pilot kicked off yesterday in the city of Peachtree Corners, Georgia. | Curbed

  • The head of Transport for London alerted drivers that private cars do not have “a long-term future” in the city center, a pronouncement that appears to include electric vehicles. | Evening Standard

  • Ride Report raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Unusual Ventures to help cities and operators manage micromobility. | TechCrunch

  • After Madison’s Bcycle added ebikes to its shared system last year, ridership and new users more than doubled. | State Journal

  • A new report says that micromobility could replace 51% of car trips in Chicago. | Smart Cities Dive

  • Relatedly, Chicago is adding more Divvy bikeshare stations this spring. Here is a map. | Streetsblog

  • Ebike sales in Germany have almost doubled in the last two years. | Bike Europe

  • Lime is betting that its sophisticated new geofencing feature will make its service more attractive to cities. | Government Technology

  • In Paris, Bird and Plume are working together to document air quality data. | Bird

  • Singapore-based micromobility operator Beam is rolling out a new model of scooter in Malaysia. | Vulcan Post

Jobs to Be Done

Welcome to our jobs board. Every week we post new career openings in hopes of connecting our smart and talented readers with exciting professional opportunities in the world of new mobility.

Find out who’s hiring below and sign up for the newsletter to see more listings every week.

If your company is looking to make its next hire, and you want to reach thousands of qualified candidates who live and breathe mobility, you should list with us.  Hit reply to find out more about being listed. No charge.

Stay Connected

Want more up-to-the-minute news and announcements? Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter and check out our website.