Guidelines to help cities safely accelerate recovery
Initiatives among many of the world’s cities to reduce car use – the main factor in greenhouse gas emissions – have led to the emergence of soft mobilities, or micromobilities. This includes free-floating, or dockless, e-scooters.
Introduced in 2018, e-scooters have become fixtures in cities across the globe. E-scooter’s unprecedented uptake over the past 24 months means they now account for significant modal share. This rapid deployment has created numerous challenges, including road safety risks and cluttering of public spaces. Adding to these challenges, COVID-19 drastically changed public transit and commuting.
Additionally, COVID-19 has drastically changed public transport and commuting. Authorities need to acknowledge the public’s faith in public transport may not recover soon, and alternative modes of transit are required to help cities accelerate their recovery.
This paper explains how cities and transit agencies can look at alternative modes of transit, namely e-scooters, to help accelerate their pandemic recovery, and how to create frameworks for sustainable, low-carbon micromobility programs.