COVID Is Undoing Car Culture in Cities

April 14, 2020

This week, Paris postpones decision on scooters, Trek confirms “mini bike boom,” and China is turning away from transit, 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.

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There are advantages to structuring insurance programs for both current and future success. In part 3 of Founder Shield’s Micromobilty Growth toolkit, they’ve put together an Expansion Roadmap. They pulled city requirements from all major U.S. locations to help operators develop a growth strategy to enter targeted markets. 

Allow insurance to work towards your expansion goals, not against them.

Webinar

The coronavirus pandemic is a crucible moment for micromobility.

Every company that rents scooters or bikes must decide whether it is better to forge ahead serving a small number of people who urgently need to get around, or slash service and hope to live to fight another day.

This week on our member-only webinar, Spin co-founders Euwyn Poon and Derrick Ko will discuss their decision to keep their fleet online during COVID-19 and why they believe scooters are essential to a functioning society.

The video conference will take place at 10AM PT (1PM ET) on Thurs., April 16.

Want to join? Sign up a free 30-day trial of Triple M now to receive the webinar registration info via email, plus unlock other cool perks. 

Podcast

“The political class has to show a willingness to make things a little less convenient for automobile drivers.”

Blogger, professor, and “rogue planner” David Levinson joins the podcast to discuss the once-in-a-century innovation of micromobility and the obstacles it faces.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Leading off, transit planners all over the world are coming to the rescue of embattled micromobility companies and their riders who are cooped up at home in unprecedented fashion. In a matter of days, Oakland shut down car traffic on an incredible 74 miles, or 10 percent, of its streets, to help pedestrians and cyclists to stay six feet apart; the geofence around San Francisco’s bike-share program was knocked down; Berlin widened its bike lanes; Portland waived scooter fees and slashed the price of its bike-share system to a penny per minute; the Big Island of Hawaii made its bike-share program free to the public; and New Zealand pledged to put about $60 billion behind pedestrian and cycling infrastructure after its quarantine lifts. (NATCO is tracking dozens of more cities’ transportation action plans here.)There are decades when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen.

  • Here are some more ideas for how cities could support shared micromobility companies during and after coronavirus.

  • Paris will delay allocating scooter permits until June due to COVID-19. From a total of 16 applicants, the city plans to choose three.

  • Trek’s president confirms there was a “mini bike boom” after the stay-at-home orders came out last month.

  • Car sales in Wuhan are rebounding as Chinese commuters shift from public transportation to private cars in huge numbers. The same thing could happen in other coronavirus-afflicted parts of the world if commuters aren’t given better alternatives to mass transit.

  • Buffalo’s bike-share program returns from winter hiatus equipped with hand sanitizer. For a short time, annual passes cost only a dollar.

  • Road deaths in France were down close to 40 percent in March compared to last year. (But be careful out there. With fewer cars on the road, driving speeds are way up.)

  • Vox looks at how income, attitudes toward global warming, political affiliation, and other factors correlate with social distancing practices.

  • Bike-share rides shot up 187 percent in Beijing in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

  • Layoffs.fyi is tracking verified reports of job losses since the coronavirus pandemic hit, including at micromobility companies like Bird, Voi, and Bounce. (h/t Prabin Joel Jones via Triple M)

  • More signs of business model innovation: Voi started a resale program for dockless scooters; Grow launched a monthly scooter rental system in Sao Paulo; and Gotcha is renting microvehicles to restaurants and other delivery businesses for $15 a day.

  • With a reduced fleet and staff, Dott continues to operate scooters across Europe. Its ride revenue is down 90 percent and estimates suggest that, in some cities, its devices are being rented less than once a day on average, but the company says it has sufficient funds to survive until the end of 2021.

  • Bird will award free Bird One scooters to a “select number” of essential workers who are nominated through its website.

  • Chinese operator Hellobike revealed a new ebike and secured $28.3 million to “advance its charging services.”

Jobs to Be Done

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