Originally published in Streetsblog on February 26, 2021
hared e-scooters have come a long way from their arrival on the scene three years ago, and are now about to take their place on the streets of the most populous city in the country. New York City recently made e-scooters legal after years of trepidation. A proposed pilot program has shared e-scooter companies such as Spin, Lime, Lyft, Voi and Bird competing to serve The Bronx this year, and eventually all boroughs other than Manhattan.
Will e-scooters be a blessing or a curse for the city? It’s no mystery why they were long seen by some as a potential disaster for a place as densely populated as New York. Back in 2017, when Santa Monica beachgoers and commuters joyfully took to this innovative, inexpensive way to get around, it didn’t take long for things to turn sour. Riders parked in the middle of the sidewalk, blew through red lights, and ran over people’s toes. A tidal wave of backlash and annoyance followed.
This yin and yang has defined the shared mobility space for over a decade regardless of vehicle type, from Uber to dockless bikes. In the summer of 2020, the same week, a lawsuit was filed against the two largest shared e-scooter companies alleging that maintenance problems led to serious injuries, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden was making shared micro-mobility options such as e-scooters part of a clean energy plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Even with this backdrop, there’s reason to believe that e-scooters will be a boon to New York City. For one thing, the pandemic has changed the cityscape. Despite the fact that e-scooters had been illegal to use on city streets, sales skyrocketed by triple digits in the five boroughs since the pandemic began. They provide a relatively portable, emission-free, socially distanced way to get around the city. Low-cost, shared mobility options have proved to be a transportation lifeline for some essential workers who can’t afford or don’t want to own a vehicle. Shared bike programs in New York City have become an ever-more relied upon necessity as a socially distanced alternative to public transit and post-Covid-19, scooters and bikes will continue to be valuable assets in cities, extending the value of public transit lines by miles.