The Micromobility Manifesto
THE UNBEARABLE HEAVINESS OF BEING
We’ve created is a heavy, onerous world.
A world where everyone has to compete against everyone else.
A world of gigantic bureaucratic institutions.
A world where mere existence means having a heavy, physical, destructive footprint on our planet.
A world where everything meaningful is now work: relationships, health, earning a living, raising kids, even just seeing friends and family.
And a world where the most fundamental act, something intimately tied to free agency, is heavy, destructive, dangerous, and expensive.
(UN)FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
Moving around in most cities usually requires cars.
Cars require hauling around tons of steel and glass. They require unimaginable amounts of concrete and iron in the form of roads, highways, bridges, parking lots, parking structures. They require unfathomable amounts of global looting and plunder to secure oil. They belch out so much toxins that our children choke and emit so much carbon that our planet boils. And instead of providing the freedom of movement, what they actually give us is gridlock, stress, and dismally unpleasant streets, communities, and cities.
Instead of being light, easy, and pleasant (as physics and common sense would have it) we’ve made the ability to move around heavy, costly, difficult, and unpleasant.
Electrification and self-driving cars are not the answer. They will improve air quality and will most likely be more safe. Yet they will produce more car trips, require more energy, and cause more sprawl. They wouldn’t make our streets and cities human places to live and enjoy and they they will separate us from each other even more.
They will only add to our planetary and emotional heaviness.
LET’S HAVE A GO
In his wildly popular TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson speaks eloquently about how children are naturally creative, innovative, and uninhibited, unafraid of trying new things:
“Kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go.”
That phrase “have a go” stuck with us.
Its beautiful lightness and playfulness is a bold contrast to the heaviness of the adult world we’ve created.
Why must we be stuck with the unbearable heaviness of our current being?
Why can’t we adults try something new?
Why can’t we too have a go?
THE BREATHTAKING LIGHTNESS OF MICRO-MOBILITY
Wouldn’t it be great to experience what it felt like being a kid again?
Wouldn’t it be great to just leave the weight of the current world order behind?
Wouldn’t it be great if we just got on a bike, scooter, skateboard and just calmly moved around our cities, seeing other human faces, feeling the wind in our hair, and living in the moment for once?
With micromobility, we finally have the chance to build a world that is beautiful, a world where cities are healthy, rich, vibrant, safe, and fun places to live.
The (conditioned) adult in you is now probably thinking “That’s unrealistic. No one is going to give up their cars”
Maybe.
But maybe not.
Why not try to unfurl our collective brows and start giving new, light ideas a try?
We’re already seeing a huge tidal shift, with young and old, rich and poor, black and white gravitate towards scooters and bikes when they see one on the sidewalk, within app’s reach.
So what have we got to lose?
Let’s be curious again.
Let’s insert some fun into our lives.
Let’s free ourselves from the weight of the car.
Let’s spread our collective wings, fly freely in our cities, and build an amazing future for us all!
