We’ve Got Your Latest Uber/L.A. Drama

February 18, 2020

This week, Ofo is now a shopping app, scooter startups dodge a bullet in Germany, and Spin is going (somewhere) international, 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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Meet the Agenda for Micromobility America

Today we are excited to announce that the early agenda for the Micromobility America conference is officially live.On tap, we have over two dozens industry heavyweights, including Lime president Joe Kraus, Bounce CEO Vivekananda Hallekere, Populus CEO Regina Clewlow, and Spin president Euwyn Poon, who will take the stage to explore the social, economic, and cultural impact that new modes are having on urban mobility. Expect lots of first-time announcements, breaking news, and exclusive reveals 👀Check out the early agenda here.

And remember, we will be announcing more speakers in the newsletter frequently between now and the conference, with some big surprises in store.To recap, Micromobility America is coming to the Bay Area on April 22-23 for the largest ever gathering of people specifically focused on new modes of urban mobility. This event will sell out. Register now to guarantee your place.

Exhibitors and Partners

If your company is interested in partnering or exhibiting at Micromobility America, contact us.

Want More Cool Stuff?

You should think about joining our premium service, Triple M.

For a $100 a year, our members enjoy access to a whole bunch of VIP perks, including:

  • An extra $50 registration discount to all our events, including Micromobility America and Micromobility Europe. If you come to both shows, you will earn your sign-up fee back!

  • Exclusive Triple M swag when you come to our events. Past attendees have taken home uber-comfy MM sweatshirts, AKA the official riding uniform of the great unbundling.

  • Invite to our private Slack channel, the online hub for industry players to connect and trade intelligence.

  • Access to Horace Dediu and other top executives through the Triple M call, a monthly Q&A webinar that goes deep into topics such as autonomy, electrification, and the unbundling of the car.

FYI the next Triple M call is coming up next Wednesday, February 26 at 9AM PST and it is going to be a very special edition.

Ryan Russo, the first permanent director of the Oakland Department of Transportation, is joining the Triple M call to discuss how public and private mobility stakeholders must work together strategically if they want to reach common goals and accelerate much-needed changes in the transportation system.

If you follow us closely, then you know that we believe Oakland is the micromobility capital of the U.S. and that Ryan is one of the most innovative policymakers working today. Don’t miss this conversation about how policy can both serve the public interest and spur the adoption of micromobility in cities.

Sign up for Triple M now to take part in the call next Wednesday.

Podcast

On this week’s episode of the podcast, Oliver Bruce talks to Kevin Talbot, a managing partner at Relay Ventures (past bets: Bird, Populus, Bird Canada), about how he is thinking about micromobility investments within the wider context a Softbank-dominated world.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Leading off, a hearing officer ruled last week that Los Angeles was right to suspend Uber’s scooter-and-bike permit because the company refused to share real-time trip data. The decision is a setback for Uber, which has already vowed to appeal, but it wasn’t all good news for MDS advocates either. The official said the city did not adequately explain why it needed data to be reported within five seconds or what problems could be solved or avoided with such granular information. | Times

  • In a dramatic upset, Germany’s federal legislature rejected an amendment on Friday that would have greatly increased local municipalities’ power to limit or ban scooters. The new regulations, which faced united opposition from all the shared micromobility players, were expected to pass by many observers. | Mobility Lawyers

  • Does driving hurt your health? This fascinating study of Beijing’s car lottery, which randomly assigns a limited number of permits every month to people to buy an automobile, says yes. | Globe and Mail

  • A new survey asked different types of commuters if they would choose to teleport to work if they could. While around 75% of drivers said they would rather instantly materialize at the office, only one-third of pedestrians and cyclists said the same. Active mobility is its own superpower. | Forbes

  • Nearly 10% of commuters in downtown Denver are riding bikes to work, a crucial tipping point for safety. | Denver Post

  • In partnership with Transit Screen, Swiftmile will start putting digital displays for ads, transit updates, and other alerts at its docking/charging stations next month. | TechCrunch

  • Taxi companies in Lagos are on life support as they negotiate with the government to lift a recently enacted ban on commercial motorbike service. One startup, Gokada has laid off half its operations staff and is pivoting to deliveries and river ferries to stay in business. | CNN

  • Ofo, the bike-share pioneer that was worth $2 billion before the Chinese bubble burst and left it nearly broke, has reinvented itself as a shopping app that sells everything from underwear to solar panels. While it is still possible to rent bikes through the Alibaba-backed platform, there are fewer available now. For legacy users who are still waiting to get their ride deposits refunded, the company recommends exchanging the money for a rebate on purchases. | Abacus 

  • Berlin-based Tier has acquired the U.K. swappable battery/charging startup Pushme. Late last year, you may recall, we reported that the German government was looking at making swappable batteries mandatory for scooter operators. | Grunderszene

  • GrabWheels, the mobility division of the Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab, announced it raised $30 million from Taiwanese moped maker Kymco as part of an ongoing Series A round. The deal will enable the two companies to jointly develop new two-wheel EV solutions for Southeast Asia. | E27

  • Since 2010, the amount of money Americans owe on their cars has gone up 75%. | Frontier Group

  • Andrew Hawkins tries out a novel new pedelec from Civilized Cycles, which with its built-in panniers on the rear rack, is something like a mix between a cargo bike and a regular model.

  • Faced with an obesity epidemic, the mayor of Fortaleza, Brazil’s fifth largest city, has quadrupled the amount of bike lanes since 2013. Now 40% of the city’s residents live within 1,000 feet of a bike lane. | Project Syndicate

  • Fleet management provider Zagster has integrated Joyride’s backend software platform into it system. | Joyride

  • Cambodia, by far the largest exporter of bicycles to the Europe, has temporarily lost its import-free trade privileges with the EU over its human rights abuses. | Bike Europe

  • Not your ordinary bike cops. Police in Mexicali are mounting 50-mph ebikes for department use. | Electrek 

  • Spin president Euwyn Poon teased that the company is going international soon, but did not say where or when. | Cheddar

  • Dallas is considering a spate of heavy regulations for scooters, including parking requirements, an overnight ban on service, higher permit fees, and a 20 cent tax per trip. But don’t worry: The city says a “portion” of the new revenue will go toward cycling infrastructure. | Observer

  • The number of annual trips made by bike or foot in the U.S. did not change between 2001 and 2017. Thankfully, a new vehicle type and business model came onto scene around that time that has been more successful at convincing new people to get out of cars… | HuffPo

  • Shocker! A new study finds that riding a scooter is no more dangerous than riding a bike and that, in dense cities, a trip by a car or motorcycle is “much more likely” to result in the death of a road user. | Telegraph

  • A look at how Japan’s government tests new transportation technologies, like ebikes and scooters, in small-scale regulatory “sandboxes” before deciding whether to give them widespread approval. | Harvard Business Review

  • What a difference a few years makes. Back in 2015, the British folding ebike brand Gocycle tried and failed to enter the U.S. market, eventually pulling up stakes. Now the company is back stateside and thriving amid a wider boom in pedelec sales. | Bicycle Retailer

  • Hawaii’s legislature is looking at adding scooters to the state vehicle code. The problem is that any changes would take nearly a year to go into effect and the state’s capital, Honolulu, is one of the most congested cities in the U.S. | Civil Beat

  • Shared micromobility companies in the U.S. hit record sales last year during the peak season. | Second Measure

  • Last year NYC hit UPS and Fedex with a total of $33 million in parking fines. Ask any cyclist, the fact that parcel delivery companies serially disobey traffic laws is not surprising. What is a little surprising, though, is how a UPS spokesperson responded when asked about the violations: “Simply put, the curb today in most American cities is overwhelmingly devoted to single occupancy personal vehicle parking, which is simply unsustainable and not aligned with most cities’ stated transportation priorities, like shared mobility, active transportation, safety, equity and commercial goods movement.” | Freight Waves

  • Trafi is developing a MaaS app for Munich’s public transit agency similar to the one it built for Berlin last year. | Tech EU

  • By 2026, global demand for lithium-ion recycling services could outstrip existing supply by almost 10x. | Financial Times

  • Bird is testing a “Frequent Flyer” pilot that offers super users perks like free unlocks in select markets at certain times of day. | Bird

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