Five leading rental e-scooter and e-bike firms have developed a list of ten recommendations for how cities can better integrated shared micromobility vehicles onto their streets in the future.
Dott, Lime, Superpedestrian, Tier and Voi – who all run government-backed e-scooter rental trials in the UK – have issues the guidelines to suggest how shared e-scooters and e-bikes can help to reduce pollution in cities by serving as an alternative to cars and complement public transport.
The 10 recommendations cover two main areas: how the service should function, and how it should be regulated. The guidelines range from how cities should select operators, how large vehicle fleets should be and contract length, to speed limits, parking controls and helmet use.
In the recommendations, the five firms call for cities to allow machines in contiguous operating areas that cover key areas, and the environments in which dockless parking or set parking bays should be used.
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The operators also call on speed limits for e-scooters to be set between 12.5 and 15.5mph, depending on the road. They also want helmet use to be encouraged but not made mandatory, believing that the latter could hinder uptake of the service.
The five firms also want contracts to be set at a length that will allow the services to be viable, and allow riders to become familiar with how an operator in an area works.
In a joint statement, Dott boss Henri Moissinac, Lime boss Wayne Ting, Superpededtrian boss Assaf Biderman, Tier boss Lawrence Leuschner and Voi boss Fredrik Hjelm said: “In pretty short time, the micromobility industry experienced huge growth, providing the strongest challenge yet to personal car use in cities.
“To ensure ongoing sustainability and global consistency, we combined our expertise to develop recommendations to cities that we believe are best-practices for regulating micromobility programmes. We have created a strong framework that has the potential to greatly improve the micromobility experience for riders and non-riders alike, allowing cities to experience the best of what our services provide.”
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