Scooters and cars

Scooters are coming to Canberra. It is not clear what will come of this. One possibility is that people will travel differently. A German study of three big cities suggests people that hire an e-scooter will not leave their cars at home. Only in one of the cities were the gains significant.

“Mode Share
The percentage of people using a particular mode of transport; the ACT has targets to achieve a mode share of 7% by walking, 7% by cycling and 16% by public transport of all journey to work trips by 2026. “

Building an Integrated Transport Network: Active Travel (ACT Government, May 2015)

Currently around 83% of Canberrans commute with the car. Part of the active travel agenda is providing drivers with other choices. A hire scooter scheme should be one of these options.

The study from Germany, Agora-Verkehrswende Shared E-Scooters Paving the Road-Ahead, reports on scooter hire schemes in four large cities, three of which are in the USA.

Modal shift for e-scooter riders in selected cities is shown in figure 4 below. The questioned asked is: “how would you have reached your most recent destination, had an e-scooter not been available?” Only in Portland was there a significant substitution of scooters for cars. In France and San Francisco, the effect was less than 5%. This does not bode well for the ACT mode share targets.