Study: E-scooters flood Europe's cities
While car, bike and scooter sharing have already established themselves in many places, the current mobility hype is focused on e-scooters. A ZHAW study in seven European cities shows that the number of e-scooters has increased more than tenfold within a year.
Zurich does not need to hide in an international comparison when it comes to sharing offers in the mobility sector. Measured in terms of the number of inhabitants, there are more sharing vehicles available than in major cities such as Berlin, Barcelona or London. Only Paris, with around 15.7 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, is better off than Zurich with 13.5. Here, not only have e-scooters increased from 1890 to a new total of 2350 vehicles, but bike sharing has also increased by 1055 bikes to a new total of 2405 bikes. "This is all the more astonishing when you consider that Lime, a provider, has even withdrawn from bike sharing," says Transportation Systems student Lino Hafner, who led the study together with fellow student Matthias Auf der Maur. According to the ZHAW students' assessment, however, bicycles could soon be outcompeted by e-scooters. "We estimate the potential of e-scooters to be greater, as they are more user-friendly than sharing bikes and therefore appeal to more people."
This study is already the fifth annual study of "Shared Mobility" in Europe. Looking at the fleet development of car sharing from 2015 to 2019, many different development patterns emerge. While in Zurich and Barcelona the fleet numbers have hardly changed, the most extreme contrasts can be observed in Paris and Berlin. "In Paris, the carsharing market has collapsed, whereas in Berlin there are a whole eleven providers with a total of over 6000 vehicles," explains Matthias Auf der Maur. In Copenhagen and Vienna, meanwhile, the number of vehicles has risen slightly. London has recovered after a small slump and in 2019 will again have the same number of fleets as in 2015.
