E-scooters: cure or death blow?

E-scooters are seen as the saviors of urban mobility. But which journeys do they really replace? How sustainable is the rental e-scooter market? What dangers lurk when driving? And who really benefits from people using scooters instead of public transport? Here you will find the answers to the most pressing questions about the e-scooter business.

For many people, e-scooters have become an integral part of the typical means of transportation. While scooters have been a common sight on local streets for a good twenty years, it was only around five years ago that whole floods of rental e-scooters hit the urban centers. They can be recognized by their striking colors such as lime green, pink, orange or turquoise. However, as with other mass trends, the fact that the legislature, or in this case the cities and local authorities, only intervened late or retroactively in the process led to a complex situation. This ultimately has not only legal but also socio-political consequences.

Everywhere, the initial euphoria of users sooner or later turned into frustration and dissatisfaction. With a peak of 25,000 e-scooters, Oslo, for example, has reacted to the flood of aluminum and is now rigorously regulating usury. The city has already set an upper limit for commercial e-scooters in 2021 and capped it at 8,000 units. So what happened on the way from hype to major frustration? An important search for clues, because in general, nothing less is being negotiated here than the question of what our cities should look like in the future – and who has a finger in the pie.

Yet the history of e-scooters is a story full of misunderstandings. They were first launched on the market for private individuals. However, the potential of the spontaneously usable scooters quickly brought companies onto the scene that offered large fleets of cheap scooters for hire in cities. An apparent win-win situation in which the cities get additional means of transportation and companies get a return on their investment.

Using an app, anyone can easily create a customer account, locate the nearest scooters, reserve them and use them. The big advantage over the previously common bike rental systems is that the scooters can be returned to any location. Payment is made conveniently via app. If you have a customer account with a particular provider, you can use the associated fleet vehicles in any city. But with great power comes great responsibility.

The problems associated with their large numbers make e-scooters a pressing issue in road traffic regulations and in the cityscape in general. However, one scooter alone does not make a legal tightrope act. What happened at the beginning, however, was an unregulated oversupply of rental devices, which were then often carelessly left on sidewalks or tactile guidance systems by users. Quite a few ended up in local waterways. However, because such dumped scooters did not represent a major financial loss for the companies, they no longer felt responsible for them.

With this development, laws had to be written to regulate existing situations. For example, there are still so-called “clean-up patrols” in Paris today, i.e. cleaning teams that not only clear the streets, but also the rivers and green spaces of broken or unusable vehicles on behalf of the provider companies. Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris since 2014, described the situation as “anarchic” and inadequate for a democratic metropolis. French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne even spoke of the “law of the jungle” in the context of the scooter problem.

In 2019, there were 19 internationally active providers of thousands of rental devices across Europe. The careless use of these devices is not just a problem for people who find it difficult to get around due to overturned or poorly parked scooters. The battery-powered devices are also an environmental problem if the batteries end up in the environment and are not properly recycled and thus removed from the circular economy. In many cities, the lack of regulation is denounced as a matter for the individual federal states, with responsibility being shifted to the other jurisdiction.

At the very least, scooters had to be legally classified within the road traffic regulations in order to create clear conditions. In many cities, for example, a ban on parking on sidewalks has been enforced to this day, and in most countries riding is now only permitted on cycle paths and only in exceptional cases on the road. According to road traffic regulations in Germany, Scandinavia and other countries, e-scooters are treated in the same way as bicycles. This means that in the event of any ambiguities, you can fall back on an existing and mature system in which all rights and rules are already legally defined. The problem here is that the regulations that apply to bicycles cannot – or should not – be applied one-to-one to scooters in all areas.

Bicycles have existed in our culture for centuries. Even if you don’t ride a bike yourself, you know roughly which behaviors are okay with it – and which are not, such as riding on the sidewalk. Motorized scooters are not only a relatively recent invention, they are also not limited to your own physical strength. However, because they are neither heavy nor large, their use does not require a separate driving license. This makes them attractive for those who have not previously taken part in private transport and are therefore unfamiliar with road traffic regulations. In addition, most e-scooter riders do not wear helmets, and fatal accidents have been documented since 2019 at the latest.

Frequent accidents, especially with pedestrians, are also one of the reasons why the ripcord had to be pulled in Paris. Following a referendum with a low turnout – but an even clearer result (89% of votes cast were against e-scooters) – Mayor Anne Hidalgo implemented a reduction in the number of rental devices and stricter laws for them. By September 1, 2023, around 15,000 e-scooters are to disappear from the Parisian cityscape. In addition to safety, Hidalgo also has another goal in mind: Paris is to become the first 15-minute city.

Of course, there is also a good reason for the European metropolis’ media-effective efforts, apart from the quality of life for its more than two million inhabitants: Paris is hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, by which time the city should even have become car-free. Hidalgo is currently expanding the pedestrian zones and focusing on greening the urban space. The city center is to be largely car-free by 2024. However, the planned entry into force of driving bans has been postponed for years.

In this video, you can see how Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, wants to achieve the goal of a 15-minute city:

The concept of the 15-minute city states that all necessary facilities should be accessible within 15 minutes by sustainable means of transportation. It is contrary to the modern cityscape that has been established for decades, which provides for a division of functions: Living, working and industry should be spatially separated as far as possible in order to ensure functional purity. What is automatically planned, however, are long distances for everyone who (has to) move back and forth between the individual functions. This concept inevitably encourages private car ownership. A city with fewer cars must therefore deviate from the utopia of the modern city.

Paris is not alone in this goal, even in Europe. Barcelona wants to revise its typical block structure, albeit with a different concept but with the same goal. The result is the so-called superblocks, whose concept involves merging several blocks. A car-free zone will be created in the middle of these blocks, which will be primarily for pedestrians. Individual trials have already been carried out and the feedback is consistently positive: Less traffic and fewer dangerous street situations, better air quality, more peace and quiet, more opportunities for greenery and therefore a reduction in heat are the quantifiable benefits of the superblocks.

In both cases, the issue of e-scooters in urban traffic must also be taken into account.

In many countries, e-scooters are treated in the same way as bicycles in order to provide a legal basis for their use. In Vienna, stricter regulations were introduced in 2018 due to the problem of broken and illegally parked e-scooters. Only non-motorized scooters are allowed on the sidewalk. In Austria, e-scooters have been considered bicycles under the Road Traffic Act (StVO) since 2019 and, as in Paris, may not be parked on sidewalks, for example.

Since 2023, Vienna has also had its own parking zones around so-called hotspots (i.e. highly frequented locations) where e-scooters must be parked. In Oslo, night-time driving in the city was banned in order to reduce the increased risk of accidents under the influence of alcohol. However, the government of the Norwegian capital saw one of the problems precisely in the fact that e-scooters were legally equated with bicycles. This also meant that they were not subject to stricter regulation.

In Copenhagen, e-scooters can be used, but not parked or rented in the city center. In this way, the bicycle capital of Europe is consolidating its well-cultivated image. In Sweden, the flood of e-scooters has been brought under control with increased charges for providers. This is also intended to reduce careless use of the means of transportation. Oslo topped the ranking of the most scooter-friendly cities in Europe, even before the reduction in the number of devices.

Scooter-friendly cities at the height of their popularity:

• Oslo
• Rome
• Madrid
• Zurich
• Lisbon

Of particular importance here was the total number of devices available. Given current developments, it can be assumed that other cities apart from Oslo and Paris, especially those that are popular with tourists, will become increasingly restrictive in their use of devices.

When rental e-scooters were launched in European cities in 2018, the average service life of a device was estimated to be only around 30 days. (The data here comes from the USA.) For good reason, even five years later there are still no really reliable data sets that could provide information on the actual sustainability of the usage period.

The length of use recorded varies greatly. In 2019, for example, it was a few months in some cases and therefore significantly shorter than privately used scooters. However, in the case of private e-scooters, due to the high price of battery replacement and the relatively poor workmanship of the scooters, the entire vehicle would be completely scrapped when the battery died. Rental devices would be more stable and designed for multiple repairs. On average, a scooter is used for two to three years, according to rental companies, at least in 2023.

The providers have a vested interest in not determining the useful life of the devices. After all, almost all companies advertise their products with the slogan sustainability. And of course, e-scooters have many advantages in terms of sustainability for getting around the city. They can be used flexibly, take up little space, run without a combustion engine via a rechargeable battery and therefore cause neither noise nor exhaust fumes on site.

Young people in the big cities in particular use the rental devices, which further emphasizes the hip-urban image. At the same time, the disadvantages of using them in urban centers are evident. The nimble, agile and quiet e-scooters are a thorn in the side of pedestrians, cyclists and car drivers. They tend to travel too fast in pedestrian zones and too slowly on the roads. They have no place on sidewalks and the main prejudice is that users do not adhere to any road traffic regulations.

By renting them, users also form less of an emotional bond with the e-scooters, which means they treat them more carelessly than they would with their own devices, for example. Under pressure from cities and local authorities, providers have implemented safety precautions, such as requiring a photo to be taken of parked e-scooters. This then records the proper condition and the legal parking location. This prevents misuse of the rental devices.

Another issue with the use of e-scooters is the journeys they replace. In 2018, Paris was the first European city in which e-scooters were available on a rental basis. Barcelona and Madrid followed hot on its heels. In 2019, there were already a total of 19 providers in Europe.

The largest providers in Europe include

• Tier (Germany)
• Bolt (Estonia)
• Voi (Sweden)
• Lime (USA)
• Bird (USA)

Lime claims that since the company was founded in 2017, almost a fifth of all scooter journeys have replaced a car journey. The initial hype was huge, as e-scooters seemed to solve many mobility problems directly for users: they are extremely flexible to use, easy to rent and park and can bridge the “last mile”. This refers to the distance that a person has to walk from getting off the last means of transportation to their destination.

Now that buses and the like have a fixed network of stops, a bridging solution is often needed for the proverbial last few meters, which can be more or less long. After all, if you have to walk another twenty minutes from the bus stop to your destination, the attractiveness of sustainable means of transport decreases rapidly. The car has so far been unbeaten as a door-to-door solution in many areas, but has the disadvantages of high purchase and maintenance costs, combustion engines, exhaust fumes and space problems when parking. Most of the time, the car is not driven at all.

E-scooters are a better alternative to cars if they are used more in outlying districts. The German Federal Environment Agency does not consider e-scooters to be a sustainable means of transportation in 2021. According to the agency, the biggest problem is private cars in cities. The increasing use of e-scooters will not reduce the number of journeys made by car. However, due to the lower density of public transport in the outer areas of cities, this is precisely where e-scooters could score points by extending the distance traveled beyond the two-kilometer limit. Up to this distance, people are more likely to cycle or walk anyway. In any case, both modes of transportation are more sustainable than using an e-scooter.

Rental providers have a common denominator: they communicate strongly and consistently that they are promoting a sustainable business model. Lime, Tier and Co. websites are peppered with buzzwords such as “green”, “sustainability”, “community” and “innovation”. It has long since ceased to be enough for companies to simply offer a product. Due to the tough competitive conditions, products have to offer qualities that go far beyond product features. In the case of e-scooter rental companies, these are terms that people who are more willing to do without a car or drive electric devices in order to avoid emissions are happy to identify with.

In Germany alone, turnover from the e-scooter rental business amounted to 167 million euros in 2022, putting the car nation in second place worldwide, ahead of France and behind the USA. Accordingly, there is a large lobby behind the market that wants to dock directly into local politics. There, it can work with decision-makers to develop new laws that favor the use of e-scooters. This is because cities usually have special autonomy in legislation, meaning that they can also adapt national laws within their own urban area. If cities such as Oslo and Paris now pass restrictive scooter laws, this narrows the market and consequently the turnover of individual providers. And that is not in the interests of the profiteers.

A dedicated online magazine highlights the interests, considerations and strategies of the distributors. Ironically, the ZAG Group is not well known outside its industry, at least not among the general public. However, the ZAG Group is well known: After all, it is made up of the leading entrepreneurs in the e-mobility sector outside of the automotive industry and represents their interests. And these interests are so strong that, for example, the car rental company Hertz was sued by Lime for allegedly poaching engineers unlawfully.

The ZAG Group also runs ZAG daily, an online magazine focusing on e-scooter and bicycle transportation. The aim is to establish sustainable mobility in cities worldwide. To this end, CEOs, influencers and other players in the industry are invited to write about their opinions or provide insights into the motivations and intentions of decision-makers in the form of interviews.

Mark Cutler and Richard Woods and a handful of editors are responsible for ZAGdaily. E-mobility is promoted with the buzzwords of sustainability, CO2 neutrality and as a sustainable alternative to noisy, smelly and congestion-causing motorized private transport. The negative aspects of e-scooters are ignored. Be it the dangerous driving behavior and high speed, carelessly parked and obstructive e-scooters and the increase in accidents, especially at night and under the influence of alcohol.

The online presence is intended to create a basis for making the self-proclaimed need for change in urban life visible to political decision-makers. The ZAGdaily thus pursues a clear agenda. It not only aims to disseminate objective information, but also to influence the public discourse in favor of companies that want to support the sustainable transport transition. It shows how important the urban market is for companies that rely on e-scooters and their rental.

There is also talk that “mobility is a human right” (Horace Dediu, analyst, influencer and founder of various mobility companies), or that the “safe and legal use of e-scooters has the potential to revolutionize the commute to work” (Adam Norris, founder of Pure Electric). Anything is possible and e-scooters seem to be the savior of the present.

To what extent can and should private companies intervene in public affairs? Voi, one of the largest providers of e-scooters in Europe, clearly sees itself as a co-creator in the public sphere. Jack Samler, Regional General Manager for the UK and France, assures ZAGdaily that sooner or later they will be back on the streets of Paris. We need to work together with the public administration to find ways to make individual transportation possible. This should be done with the cooperation of industry and politics.

Public space must be designed by and for the population. Modern urban concepts intervene in the e-scooter issue, just as e-scooters are the transition from the private sector to the public space. Individual transportation under the guise of sustainability is the bargaining chip. Unconsciously, the forms of mobility we allow ourselves within the city are being negotiated here. The scooters make the 15-minute city more tangible than ever. However, the integration of e-rental devices into urban mobility needs to be carefully planned. The city administration, which is not driven by shareholders or sales, but acts as a representative of the citizens, should be in charge.

In reality, cities react sluggishly to the large number of rental e-scooters. Companies offered their devices without taking into account laws, built infrastructure and stakeholders. However, cities should actually first identify needs and consider all possible means of transportation, with a focus on low-fuel, low-emission, safe and inclusive mobility. Only in the second step will concrete integration into the real urban fabric take place on the basis of transparent tenders, with a publicly supported evaluation program.

Because if you believe the evaluations, e-scooters and the like are by no means the panacea for our urban mobility problem. They are just a small piece of the puzzle on the way to climate-friendly and truly sustainable mobility, which also includes non-motorized bicycles and local and long-distance public transport. This is because e-scooter journeys currently only replace journeys by bike or on foot to a large extent. They in no way solve the problem of the constant number of car journeys.

With the focus on pedestrians, higher quality urban spaces are automatically planned for everyone, with wider paths and reduced traffic volumes. The reduction in motorized traffic also means less noise and less stress for residents. In principle, the focus of road use already changes the weighting of the individual means of transportation. For example, new streets can be designed from the outset as residential streets or driving and pedestrian paths where cars are not the literal measure of all things.

The fight and the right to a rental e-scooter are nothing less than the negotiation of urban mobility under the guise of sustainability. However, the real game makers are private companies whose top priority is to maximize profits instead of a sustainable and people-centered city. It is necessary to take a critical look at the actors involved – and not to believe those who shout the loudest. The goal of sustainable mobility is not to maximize profits or economic returns, but to promote well-being and comfort in cities.