Personal mobility, disruptive ideas, TIER

Benefits

Last-mile problem and micromobility

The last-mile problem is a public transportation dilemma regarding the difficulty of moving passengers from private residences to mass-transit centers i.e. bus stops, train stations, etc. This spatial inefficiency forces passengers to use personal transportation (i.e. cars, motorcycles, etc.) in order to commute the short distance between transportation hubs and their homes. The last-mile problem reduces the intended benefits of public transportation: reduced carbon emissions, reduced traffic congestion, and increased convenience. Micro-mobility options, provide a solution to the last-mile problem and are characterized as light-weight, communal, and designed for short-distance travel. Scooter-sharing systems are one of the most heavily adopted micromobility services. The ease of accessibility and intuitive usability of scooter-sharing systems will increase the adoption of public transportation and reduce the usage of personal vehicles. Citizens may incur alternative feedback benefits such as increased access to job opportunities, reduced traffic congestion, and reduced air and noise pollution

Traffic

Traffic congestion is amplified by the increased usage of personal-automobile transportation as a means of overcoming the last-mile problem.percent of all vehicle congestion in the United States can be attributed to drivers making trips within a three-mile radius, and over 60 percent of car trips fell within the micro-mobility range, 0–5 miles. E-Scooters provide a means of subverting congestion and output higher speeds than the 9 mile per hour average of automobile traffic within many major urban hubs.At the individual level, the reduction of commute time is associated with an increase in economic mobility and advancement.In the United States alone, an estimated 87 billion dollars were lost to time spent waiting in traffic. Micromobility Investor Oliver Bruce has asserted that 4 trillion miles of automobile travel globally can realistically be replaced with scooter-sharing and other micro-mobility alternatives.As more drivers transition towards the adoption of scooter-sharing systems, personal-automobile traffic is reduced.

Sustainability

E-scooters are powered by electricity and therefore have zero direct carbon emissions. The reduced carbon impact between personal automobiles and e-scooters has been a central tenant in the value propositions of market-leaders Bird and Lime.E-scooters are more energy-efficient than alternative electric vehicle options; a scooter can travel twenty-times further than an while consuming equal quantities of energy. The ridership of e-scooters yields a neutral primary, but the production, distribution, and charging of e-scooters create a significant secondary carbon footprint.In comparison to personal-automobiles and dockless e-bikes, dockless e-scooters have a smaller aggregate carbon footprint. Buses, bicycles, and personal electric bipedal vehicles maintain smaller carbon-footprints than dockless e-scooters.Industry leaders in the e-scooter sector have dedicated research and development efforts towards reducing the secondary carbon footprint.

Employment

Electric chargers

The scooter-sharing system introduced charging jobs that compensate people to find and charge scooters. Bird can approve workers after receiving personal, tax, and bank-account information.The process does not require a background check and attracts students and young professionals who want a flexible way to earn extra money. Companies even offer additional bonuses for missing or hard to find scooters; however, the incentives have backfired because some chargers intentionally hide the device to reap the extra cash.Earnings depend on the device's charge and location, but often range from 5 dollars to 20 dollars.Typically, scooters need half of a kilowatt-hour of electricity which costs about 5 cents. Competition over collecting scooters escalated to criminal acts including impersonating company officials to retrieve hoarded scooters and stealing account information through Facebook groups.