Early favorites emerge in UK scooter war

Plus, Bird shares are being marked down, Berlin is battling for bike lanes, and the French are taxing SUVs by the pound.

October 20, 2020

Hello and welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by small electric 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 webinars or events.

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Today’s the day

Heads up: The first-ever Curbivore virtual conference kicks off in ~2.5 hours with a great lineup of speakers, including founders and executives from ChowNow, Uber Eats, Postmates, Culdesac, and more.

They’ll be sharing their insights on how cities and businesses are adapting to outdoor commerce, last-block delivery, dark stores, curbside pickup, off-premise operations, and all the other things we generally refer to as “the new normal.”

Check out the program here, then register for free below.

September scooter app report

According to data gathered from more than 150 global app stores, Bird and Lime were tied as the highest-rated micromobility platforms in September, each with a score of 4.84/5. This latest movement represents a reversion to July, when both companies were in a dead heat. Bird led slightly in August.

Fueled by a remarkable .8 improvement in the Google Playstore, Voi improved its rating the most last month, leaping a total of 1.3% points into a very close second place (4.83/5) overall.

In the newly opened and hotly contested UK market, Voi and Lime are the most highly rated apps (4.9/5), followed by Tier (4.8/5).

Prabin Joel Jones is the CTO of Bond Mobility, a premium speed e-bike sharing operator based in Zurich.

What you need to know this week

  • A new ITDP study reveals the world’s most walkable cities are Hong Kong, Moscow, Paris, Bogotá, and London. US metros ranked particularly low due to urban sprawl.

  • Fidelity Investments filed a disclosure with the SEC marking down the value of its Bird investment by 17% since the beginning of the year. The scooter unicorn has put its Santa Monica headquarters up for sublease.

  • Unagi is opening its second store, in Brooklyn. Beyond the retail implications, a brick-and-mortar presence allows the scooter company to offer maintenance and repairs. As investor Reilly Brennan recently noted, car dealers make about half their revenue from service.

  • Statistics from Vancouver reveal the difference in how road space is allocated and how it is used.

  • Even though Americans drove 16% less in the first half of 2020, the rate of fatalities per 100 million miles increased from 1.06 to 1.25.

  • A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that a majority of e-scooter injuries happen on the sidewalk; 40% happen on a first ride.

  • As the e-bike revolution rolls forward, Bosch is offering virtual maintenance training to dealers to help them keep up with rising demand from customers.

  • Schaeffler has offloaded its micromobility division, including the Bio-Hybrid quadricycle which is scheduled to launch in mid-2021, to a German company called Micromobility Services and Solutions.

  • World-renowned mountain bike builder Tony Ellsworth has launched a new electric bicycle brand known as The Ride Bikes.

  • India-based CredR, a marketplace for used bicycles and mopeds, raised around $1,000,000 in funding from Eight Roads and ON Mauritius.

  • While New York City delays its shared scooter pilot, local retailers say scooter sales are skyrocketing.

  • Ono, a German e-cargo bike company that was co-founded by the former head of design at Mercedes-Benz, raised a $3.5 million in a round led by EIT Innoenergy.

  • New York City’s bike boom has been accompanied by 27% uptick in bike thefts this year. Bike racks, anyone?

  • In Helsinki, biking’s mode share has more than doubled amid the pandemic.

  • As Berlin redesigns its urban spaces in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Germany’s powerful auto interests are trying repeal the addition of temporary “corona cycleways.” However, a recent poll shows a majority of the city’s residents (52%) want to make the pop-up bike lanes permanent.

  • Check out this week’s New Yorker cover, entitled “Shifting Gears.”

  • Newton Rider has designed a foldable helmet that is just 16 millimeters thick.

  • Hiring patterns suggest that Superpedestrian’s scooter-sharing division, Link, is planning a multi-national European expansion.

  • The French government has agreed to tax heavy SUVs by the pound. Big win for the little guys.

  • As GM phases out cars in favor of trucks and SUVS, The Verge reviewed the largest and longest Escalade ever in an article entitled: “Driving the 2021 Cadillac Escalade was one of the most stressful experiences of my life”

Jobs to be done

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