A team from University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany examined the various aspects of e-scooter associated injuries using one of the largest cohorts to date, and reported their findings and recommendations in an open-access paper in Scientific Reports. E-scooter rentals became widely available in Hamburg starting in June 2019;... Read more →

A new research report released by the Transportation Research Board (TRB), E-scooter Safety: Issues and Solutions, finds that amid a rapid rise in the use and prevalence of electric scooters (e-scooters) on US roads and sidewalks, more must be done to address regulatory, infrastructure and educational deficiencies that are putting... Read more →

Magna is expanding into the fast-growing micromobility market by investing $77 million in Yulu, India’s largest electrified shared mobility provider, and creating a battery-swapping service company. Yulu deploys shareable, low-speed, electric two-wheelers to facilitate accessible, sustainable urban mobility in India. As part of the agreement, Magna will have a stake... Read more →

Michigan will enable four new mobility services to help address challenges across the state related to sustainable transit, roadway safety, parking and staffing shortages in the service industry. In partnership with key universities, four companies—Bluecity, GEKOT Inc., Mouvit and Nimbus—will receive $285,000 in total funding through the Michigan Mobility Funding... Read more →

India-based global tire-maker Apollo Tyres, which markets its products under the global brands Apollo and Vredestein, will launch its first dedicated micro-mobility tire, the Vredestein Cargo. Developed specifically for electrically assisted cargo bikes used for urban deliveries, the new tire will make its debut at Eurobike 2022 in Frankfurt, Germany... Read more →

Honda Motor announced the establishment of Striemo Inc., the second business venture to originate from IGNITION, Honda’s new business creation program. Striemo Inc. has been developing a one-person, three-wheeled electric micro-mobility product, also named “Striemo,” which features an original balance assist mechanism that enables stable riding with less likelihood of... Read more →

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, are presenting a framework for comparing how different micromobility vehicles, such as e-scooters, and bicycles move in cities, a methodology that can benefit companies and local authorities alike, and contribute to improving traffic safety. Their open-access paper appears in the Journal of Safety... Read more →

Razor unveiled its new electric scooter, the Jeep RX200, in collaboration with the Jeep brand. The Jeep RX200 features an Army Green color and an outdoor style; it is available at Razor.com for $499. The Jeep RX200 scooter is made to traverse off-road terrain with its durable 8-inch, air-filled, pneumatic... Read more →

Porsche is acquiring a majority stake in the e-bike manufacturer Greyp Bikes. The sports car manufacturer’s venture capital arm, Porsche Ventures, has held a stake of around 10% in the Croatian company since 2018. It invested in Greyp at the same time that it invested in its sister company, Rimac... Read more →

High adoption of shared micromobility in the US coud save 2.3 billion gasoline-equivalent gallons per year nationwide, according to a new study by a team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The paper is published in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. Travel demand data at the national... Read more →

In Japan, Toyota is introducing the C+walkT, a three-wheeled electric scooter designed for walking areas. The C+walkT features a low, flat base just 150 mm high for easy boarding and alighting. It is designed so that it is comfortable to use in walking areas, facilitating side-by-side travel and communication with... Read more →

Bird, a leader in electric shared micromobility services, unveiled the Bird Bike, a new e-bike that you can own. A limited quantity of Bird Bikes are available to order now direct from Bird, and will be broadly available from leading US retailers this fall. Designed to meet increased demand for... Read more →

Micromobility services Bird and Ford-owned Spin are the latest to integrate with Google Maps for Mobile (GMM). People using Google Maps for efficient and reliable journey planning are now able to discover Spin e-scooters and e-bikes and Bird scooters when given route options for their journeys. Google Maps users are... Read more →

Micro-mobility company Helbiz is exploring the electrification of its fleet with Lightning eMotors. Following the completion of the current pilot program, Helbiz plans to deploy Lightning Electric Ford Transit 350HD vans throughout Miami and Washington DC to manage its intra-urban operations. These zero-emission electric vehicles will replace the existing gas-powered... Read more →

The BMW Group has presented a number of innovative micromobility solutions to the public in the past, including the BMW Motorrad X2City, the Personal Mover Concept and the BMW Vision E³ Way elevated road concept. BMW Group engineers are now unveiling the electrified bicycle Concept DYNAMIC CARGO and the e-scooter... Read more →

A study recently published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center assesses how best to identify at the European level an additional fifth category of batteries—those used for Light Means of Transport (LMT) such as e-bikes and similar new products—which would ensure their appropriate collection and recycling. The current 2006... Read more →

Li-Cycle Corp., the leading lithium-ion battery recycler in North America, and micro-mobility company Helbiz are partnering to create a safe and sustainable recycling solution for end-of-life lithium-ion batteries used in e-scooters and e-bikes. As the global shift toward electrification continues to accelerate, the popularity of micro-mobility is following suit, with... Read more →

A Henry Ford Health System study published in The Laryngoscope shows that head and neck injuries caused by use of e-scooters have been on the rise since rideshare systems were introduced to the public in late 2017. Kathleen Yaremchuk, M.D., Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck... Read more →

Spin, the micromobility subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, announced an exclusive international alliance with software company Tortoise to bring Spin S-200 remotely-operated e-scooters to cities in North America and Europe in 2021. The company’s new Spin Valet platform makes it possible to operate Spin’s fleet remotely and automatically re-park scooters... Read more →

Ridar Systems and HERE Technologies signed a partnership agreement to begin integrating HERE location technology into Ridar’s cloud-based mobile solution. This collaboration will allow Ridar Systems to identify better the location of two-wheelers in order to provide a more accurate position to drivers. Motorcycles, bicycles, scooters and other forms of... Read more →

The average distance per trip for rented scooters in the US in 2019 was one mile, according to data from the National Association of City Transportation Officials. Rented bikes (including e-bikes) were generally used for longer trips. Trips made by bike share members averaged 1.5 miles while trips made by... Read more →

The number of micromobility trips grew 62% from 2018 to 2019 due to the large increase in scooter trips. Shared micromobility refers to small fleets of fully or partially human-powered vehicles including bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters. Trips on scooters more than doubled from 2018 to 2019 while bike trips increased... Read more →

City planners and many pedestrians have wondered how to get electric scooters off the sidewalk, but two new studies from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety raise a different question: Just where should e-scooters be ridden? We didn’t see many e-scooter crashes with motor vehicles, and that may be a... Read more →

A new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) finds that, taken together with public transport, walking and cycling for short city journeys provide the greatest benefits for both human health and the environment in urban areas. The introduction and rapid uptake of app-based vehicle sharing schemes can also have... Read more →

Researchers at the University of Texas San Antonio have published a review of the security and privacy risks posed by e-scooters and their related software services and applications. We were already investigating the risks posed by these micromobility vehicles to pedestrians’ safety. During that study, we also realized that besides... Read more →

Consumer Reports is publishing survey results that show consumer concerns with new mobility options including ridehailing and ridesharing services. Chart shows the percentage of Americans who have used some common modes of transportation in the past two years. Source: Consumer Reports The survey reveals safety is a major concern for... Read more →

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco have found a significant increase in e-scooter injuries and hospital admissions between 2014 and 2018—particularly over the last year—with people aged 18 to 34 years becoming the most injured group. Nearly one-third of patients had a head injury, more than double the... Read more →

A research team led by Professor Wei-Hsin Liao from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has developed a lightweight (307 g) smart-materials-based energy harvester for scavenging energy from human motion, generating an inexhaustible and sustainable power supply just from walking. Specifically, the... Read more →

The deployment of micromobility sharing services (bikes and scooters) has expanded rapidly in cities across the United States. According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), the number of shared bike trips in the 100 largest US cities increased from 321,000 in 2010 to 45.5 million in 2018.... Read more →