Micro-mobility operators unite to advise North American cities on integration

Credit: Superpedestrian

Bird, Lime, Spin and Superpedestrian have announced a set of 10 recommendations aimed at helping cities across North America integrate shared micro-mobility services more effectively into their transportation networks. 

The recommendations, based on the operators’ collective experience in hundreds of cities worldwide, offer guidance on how to establish and manage e-bike and e-scooter programmes successfully. The ultimate goal is to normalise shared micro-mobility services and address previous challenges that have hindered their implementation.

In a joint statement, the CEOs of Bird (Shane Torchiana), Lime (Wayne Ting), Spin (Philip Reinckens) and Superpedestrian (Assaf Biderman) said: “In just seven years, shared electric bike and scooter ridership has taken off, providing the strongest challenge yet to personal car use in cities. To ensure these options remain a valuable part of city transportation networks, we combined our expertise across hundreds of millions of trips to develop recommendations to cities on best-practices for regulating micro-mobility programmes. This framework has the potential to significantly improve the experience for riders and non-riders alike, while allowing cities to better manage these services over the long-term.”

“The City of Chicago has implemented performance-based fleet standards for our shared scooter license programme,” said Sean Weidel, Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation. “Our programme rules were crafted to help us meet the city’s goals to provide equitable, safe, reliable and accessible service. Our rules incentivise operator compliance by using these goals as the lens through which we analyse fleet right-sizing and increase requests.”

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The 10 recommendations encompass both administrative and operational aspects of shared e-bike and e-scooter services. Key suggestions include selecting an appropriate number of operators to avoid market oversaturation, setting fleet sizes that balance reliability and tidiness, defining fees that cover programme administration costs, and ensuring uniform and automated data sharing protocols.

Other recommendations focus on areas such as fleet selection processes, operating areas and hours, parking allocation, speed limits and helmet use. The operators have stressed the importance of creating an environment that promotes rider safety and accessibility without imposing mandatory helmet laws, which can discourage usage and widen social inequalities.

The shared electric bike and scooter operators emphasised that while they collaborate on these recommendations, they remain independent competitors and fully comply with applicable competition laws. Their joint effort aims to enhance the customer experience, health and safety, and sustainability of the micro-mobility industry.

The integration of these recommendations into city policies and regulations will contribute to the continued success and expansion of shared e-bikes and e-scooters, offering residents safe, affordable and sustainable transportation options.