A major spin-up: Ford owned electric scooter company Spin preparing a major 100 city expansion by year’s end in partnership with Zagster, a leading micromobility operations platform.
Micromobility paradise: Cities are looking to Columbia’s Ciclovía where every Sunday, over 1 million people cycle the streets of Bogotá on 75 miles of the car-free roads.
This ain’t our first rodeo: The turn of the century saw a rise in scooters, allowing freedom of movement for riders and sparking street usage issues for pedestrians. What’s old is new again.
Moped diet: Upcoming national weight restrictions for hugely popular electric mopeds in China increase sales due to expected higher costs while accelerating new battery technology adoption.
Absolutely Populus! San Francisco-based startup Populus raises $3.1 million to expand platform to help cities manage shared scooters, bikes, and cars.
Social credit silver lining? Chinese bike sharing firm Hello Chuxing attributes significant year-over-year drops in bicycle damage to its social credit system, which evaluates user behavior and doles out rewards or punishments.
The gig is up? Scooter companies Bird and Spin begin hiring employees for fleet maintenance in several markets, potentially moving away from a gig economy model.
Mutually inclusive: Dockless bicycles seem be helping docked bikes, boosting ridership and suggesting a “raising of all boats” ecosystem for urban micromobility.
How can cities boost transit ridership? Add more bike share: Ridership is down on most U.S. transit systems. More bike share might help reverse those losses
JUMP bikes > Uber cars? JUMP bikes beat Uber car trips just 5 months after introduction in Sacramento – a first in a city with both services.
A Lime-y week: Lime hires its first CFO, drops “bike” from its name replacing bicycles with more popular scooters, and deals with wheel-lockups in New Zealand.
The wheels of Portlandia: This two-seater electric half-car is what Portland based Arcimoto believes will push the needle on climate change and better serve single occupancy driving. We’re big fans.
JUMP-starting slowing growth: As IPO approaches and growth for ride sharing slows, Uber proclaims self-disruption via micromobility as part of its master plan.
They wrote the book on biking infrastructure: How the first American design standard for protected bike lanes by NACTO helped spread bicycling in the U.S.
How not to do bike-share: Grossly underestimated bike lifespans and nearly-free unlimited rides were just two of the causes for Chinese bike-share company’s failure. The story of Ofo’s demise.
Micromobility and so much more: Indonesia-based Go-Jek, a ridehailing platform for motor scooters, food, groceries, and even massages, raises $1 billion from Google, JD.com, and others.
Sweet wheels: New entrant into the scooter sharing market, Wheels sports an innovative form factor with a seat, swappable batteries and a modular design, looking to significantly improve unit economics.
E-bikes get an A-list cast: The ease, freedom, and fun of e-bikes has reached Hollywood, with celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, William Shatner, Miley Cyrus, and Leonardo DiCaprio getting in on the action!
Disruption hype seems to hold: City of Portland figures show that in just a few months, 34% of users and 48% of visitors skipped the car over scooters with 6% of riders even getting rid of their cars.
First Birds, now storks? Scooters beginning to solve the 1st/last mile of package delivery, as UPS sees foldable scooters boosting deliveries in congested neighborhoods.
