Ford v F̶e̶r̶r̶a̶r̶i̶ Voi, Lime, Tier, Dott, Bird, Wind...

This week, Mobike gets resurrected, Uber rivals talk merger, and U.S. pedestrian deaths are the highest in a generation, but first…

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February 2020: Scooter App Review

Similar to previous months, in February, Lime retained the top spot in average user ratings among scooter companies in the Apple and Google app stores (4.86/5). Lime also continued its reign as the most popular of all operators worldwide in terms of activity in the app stores.

Other apps saw improvements in user satisfaction in February, reversing a trend earlier this winter, when user ratings were stagnant across the board. The average user ratings jumped 10% for Grow, 8.2% for Hive, and 4% for Tier last month. For Grow, this was the first positive growth in months. Although Hive is still trailing far behind others, it has been steadily improving its rating over the last two months, suggesting the service is making much-needed changes. 

In terms of popularity, as measured by activity in the app stores, Neuron Mobility saw the highest increase (23%) last month, followed by Hive (12%).

Using app store activity as a rough indicator of the market share, five operators, Lime, Bird, Spin, Grin, and Voi, provided more than 90% of trips globally in February.

Lime was the most popular app last month, controlling 29.6% of activity globally. It also led in app stores in key markets, including Germany, where it beat Voi (56% to 20%), in France, where Dott came in second (61% to 19%), and the U.S., where Spin was number two (59% to 26%).

Read full article to find out the most commonly reported scooter issues and more.

Prabin Joel Jones is the COO of e-motionlabs, a European mobility technology company that provides connectivity solutions for light electric vehicles.

LA Demands Data. What About Your Privacy?

Here in California we are early adopters of new technology—and guinea pigs for new ideas. We don’t blink an eye when an autonomous vehicle or one-wheeled scooter-thingy rolls down the street. And most of the time we’re okay with technology companies gathering our data so we can have all the conveniences we love—a ride on demand, anything we want delivered, or recommended movies to watch—as they long as they don’t move too fast and break things. But we don’t feel the same about government.

In the age of Trump and ICE run amok, liberals and libertarians alike are concerned about access to our data by government actors. And the idea of a government agency tracking our location and movement around a city is particularly disturbing.

Yet one government agency—the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT)—has been tracking citizen movement in an unprecedented way right under our noses, all in the name of regulating electric scooters. Californians need to fully understand the scope of this surveillance now and its planned expansion in the future.

Read the full article to find out the two steps LA could take to guarantee user privacy.

Michele Kyrouz is a lawyer, host of the Smarter Cars podcast, and executive director of the Micromobility Association.

Podcast

Few transit problems seem so addressable, and yet cause so much frustration, as scooter clutter.

Swiftmile CEO Colin Roche joins Oliver Bruce on the podcast to talk about solving one of the big missing puzzle pieces in micromobility, charging and parking infrastructure.

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What You Need to Know This Week

  • Leading off, Ford’s scooter division, Spin, is going to Europe. The company plans to deploy in Cologne this spring, followed by other German cities, and has applied for a permit in Paris. In these highly competitive European markets, where entrenched players like Tier, Bird, Dott, Lime, Wind, Hive, and Voi have head starts of months or years, we are about to find out whether being late to launch makes a difference. | The Verge

  • Lock-to charges. Unlock fees. Memberships. Cost per minute. Free parking stations and free parking areas. Not only is the new ebike pricing scheme for San Francisco’s Bay Wheels more expensive, it is so hard to understand, it seems designed to make you long for the simplicity of a key in an ignition. | SFist

  • Suzuki, the last of the major Japanese motorcycle makers to go electric, is said to be developing a battery-powered moped for the Indian market. | Electrek

  • Is Mobike making a comeback in Europe? After splitting its business between north (UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands) and south (Spain and Italy), then selling both halves to local operators, the embattled bike-share company is actually showing signs of life. In Southern Europe, where the business is being operated under the Movi brand, it is reaching new cities and investing in different form factors, like electric bikes and scooters. In Northern Europe, the outlook is less clear, with ridership declining in many markets but rebounding in Germany. | Fluctuo

  • Tier goes multimodal after acquiring a fleet of shared electric mopeds from Coup, which went defunct late last year. | TechCrunch

  • Stockholm’s public transit agency, SL, is struggling to integrate scooters into its new MaaS platform due to the costs per trip. “SL already have a fixed fare where passengers can travel by bus, train, commuter train and metro—and as many times as they wish within the month. When we looked at adding the e-scooter, however, the price needed to be doubled, but passengers were limited to three or four e-bike rides per day.” | Intelligent Transport

  • Following its acquisition in January, the Circ app has begun redirecting users to the Bird system. | Augustin Friedel

  • Ride-hailing app Grab and food-delivery service Gojek are discussing a merger. Both companies are rivals of Uber in Southeast Asia and both offer some form of micromobility-based services. | The Information

  • The new Scoot Moped, an adaptation of the Bird Cruiser, has been unveiled. (Also, the Juiced Scorpion, a bike-like, 28-mph scooter that was an inspiration for both the Scoot Moped and Bird Cruiser, began deliveries this week.) | Scoot

  • Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport wants more of its employees to bike to work using super-fast s-pedelecs, but is concerned about them speeding. In response, the airport is testing a new system that automatically slows s-pedelecs as they approach, using a combination of GPS and onboard speed limiters. Cool, now do cars in school zones. | The Verge

  • Scooter rentals are down in LA. Could it be seasonality, hefty city fees, the novelty wearing off? Experts (including our own James Gross) weigh in. | Curbed

  • Dockless bike-share system Indigo Weel is pulling out of Lyon, citing competition from scooters. | Lyon Plus

  • Bird, Lime, Bolt, and Razor lost their appeals to keep operating in Washington, DC. Four scooter networks, Lyft, Skip, Spin, and Jump, now remain. | WaPo

  • Last week the California state senate held a committee hearing on data and privacy in shared mobility, featuring Uber head of privacy and security policy Uttara Sivaram, Populus CEO Regina Clewlow, LADOT director Seleta Reynolds, and more. Watch this video of the hearing to get a sense of how state legislators are thinking about important issues like the difference between aggregated and disaggregated data, cities’ demand for real-time information on dockless vehicle trips, the threat of surveillance from law enforcement, and more.

  • Ebikes hit records sales in the Netherlands last year, outselling all other models. Industry experts expect ebike leasing will take off next, thanks to new rules that make it more attractive for Dutch companies to lease pedelecs for their employees (which is probably why Dutch manufacturer Vanmoof just expanded its leasing program to include ebikes). | NL Times 

  • Lisbon is terminating its relationship with its station-based bike-share operator and accepting applications for a new provider to take over and triple size of the fleet, primarily with ebikes. | Mayor

  • Acton launched a new fleet ebike, Nexus, that can travel over 65 miles on a full battery and reach speeds upwards of 35 mph. | Acton

  • Jeep’s high-power off-road ebike is available to pre-order for $5,899. | Engadget 

  • U.S. pedestrian deaths hit a 28-year high in 2018. | USA Today

  • Swiss-based Micro Mobility Systems (no relation) unveiled a new version of its long-awaited pod vehicle, the Microlino, and a three-wheeled scooter to go with it. | Electrek 

  • Wheels, a micromobility startup from California, has laid off 6% of its staff—or around 20 people, mostly in operations—and is rumored to be pulling up stakes in Cleveland, Salt Lake City, and Chicago. Going forward, the company plans to expand less rapidly in the U.S. and focus more on Europe, according to executives. | The Verge

Correction: Wheels says the rumors that the company is preparing to exit any markets or changing its expansion plans are false.

  • Cityscoot has raised $25.6 million through a mix of venture capital and debt financing. The electric moped sharing startup says it serves between 15,000 and 25,000 trips in Paris every day, its average trip lasts 15 minutes, and the average cost per minute for a trip is about 30 cents. | TechCrunch

  • This spring Citroën will release a two-seater EV, the Ami, that costs $6,600 to own, or $22 a month to rent, and doesn’t require a license to drive. But the really exciting part is that it weighs less than 1,000 pounds. It’s not a car. | Guardian

  • Estonia is drafting rules for electric scooters. | Mayor

  • Uber founded an advocacy group for consumer privacy called Communities Against Rider Surveillance (CARS) to push back against MDS. The association’s name tells you everything you need to know about where the ride-hail company thinks MDS is going. | CARS

  • People in Atlanta spent more than $16 million on bike and scooter rentals in 2019. | Journal-Constitution

  • The British government has pledged to put $1.27 billion behind safe pedestrian and cycling routes in the next five years. | Guardian

  • As U.S. cities become more sophisticated about dockless scooter policy, many, such as San Francisco and Washington, DC., are embracing a system of fewer permits and higher vehicle caps. | Slate

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