The City Electric

Pavement riding is not allowed in the UK e-scooter trials, and Superpedestrian and Nottingham City Council have been working together to curb the behavior. However, until now, neither party really knew how pervasive the problem was, or whether educational efforts could help curb the issue. We recently presented a report to the Council on what we’ve learned so far about pavement riding, which also included the results of a survey we conducted of riders who had ridden on the pavement during the study period.

It was announced today that the Vienna City Council gave us the greenlight to stay in Vienna for the next three years. We’re both humbled and ecstatic about the trust that the city has extended to us to keep serving riders and non-riders alike. 

As we look forward to the next three years, we wanted to highlight a couple initiatives that we’re excited about in Vienna. 

The ten recommendations, unveiled at the NACTO conference, will help cities accelerate a shift to zero-emission transportation via safe and well-integrated shared electric vehicles

Have you ever seen someone dressed as a slug? And have you seen that person ride an e-scooter? Now that we’ve rolled out our service in Eugene, we’ve seen a Slug Queen ride a scooter, and it was as joyfully quirky as you’re imagining.

We built our Superpedestrian e-scooters from the ground up, and in a time when shared scooters lasted barely a month, we were engineering ours to last six years. Still, we’ve been thinking about our scooters that will be coming up on their sixth birthdays soon. To be honest, we’re sad to think of our old friends getting recycled, and our EMEA team wondered if there could be a fun way to upcycle them instead.

Superpedestrian joined Dott, Lime, Tier, and Voi in an indiustry-first, issuing recommendations to European cities with the aim of helping cities establish strong e-scooter and e-bike programs that serve city residents and meet city goals.

As a major micromobility provider in Europe, Superpedestrian was selected as a new member of Micro-Mobility for Europe (MMfE), a coalition of micromobility operators that works with policymakers at the local, national, and European levels.

Scoot to transit this winter in Seattle with Superpedestrian, and you could earn ride discounts and free tickets on the Transit GO Ticket app!

In April 2021, Superpedestrian rolled out our bright yellow scooters in what was just our 30th city. Now, a little over a year later, riders in Vienna have taken more than 1 million rides on Superpedestrian scooters, avoiding more than 100,000 car trips and avoiding 13.5 tons of carbon emissions.

“Superpedestrian scooters are weird,” writes Bill Donahue in an article published by Bloomberg this past weekend. We take this as a compliment. While Donahue is remarking on our scooter’s robust hardware, he could just as well be talking about the other ways Superpedestrian stands apart, like our scooter’s internal technology and our authentic engagement with communities.

In this issue:

Chicago, Berkeley, and Seattle choose Superpedestrian
The happy marriage of micromobility and transit
Jeepless in Seattle
NACTO is coming to our backyard
Colbert roasted us

It’s Pride season, and we’re psyched to finally see Pride return in person. Superpedestrian rides with pride, and we’re excited to celebrate with you this summer!

Superpedestrian scooters are now rolling in Berkeley, joining our adjacent riding zones in Oakland and Emeryville to give access to even more riders in the East Bay. Riding from the Oakland Zoo to the Berkeley Rose Garden? We’ve got you!

The UK micromobility community was abuzz this week as the government announced that after two years of monitoring shared e-scooter trials in 30 cities, it is now moving to legislate e-scooters, setting formal standards for vehicle design and operations. Superpedestrian’s Jean Andrews, Policy Director for UK and Ireland, was invited for an interview on BBC radio to talk about e-scooter policy. In her informative interview, Jean explained why eyes should be on Nottingham as the national government gears up to set e-scooter policy.

Superpedestrian is not the largest or the most recognizable micromobility company in the world. In fact, we’ve only been operating e-scooter fleets for about two years. So it took some by surprise when last week it was announced that we were among only a handful of transportation companies– and the only micromobility company– singled out by Fast Company to receive their prestigious “Most Innovative” award.

What makes us worthy?

London, San Francisco, New York City, Bremen and Auckland have all had highly publicized brushes with e-bike and/or e-scooter battery fires of late. While there is no evidence that battery fires occur any more frequently than old-fashioned internal combustion engine fires, all it takes is one bad incident to shake a city’s faith in micromobility. E-scooters are now banned from all public transport in London over recent e-scooter battery fires, and Scotland is considering a similar move. If battery fires continue, further restrictions are likely.

What leads a person to try out a shared e-scooter? It may be that a scooter is in the right place at the right time, it’s a decent alternative to walking, or there’s enough for a pack of friends to explore. But underlying factors, such as gender, education level, and age also play a part. Learn about attitudes and externalities that inspire a person to try a scooter — or not.

Our test rider came up the street on our integrated Pedestrian Defense scooter and pulled up onto the sidewalk. As the scooter crossed onto the sidewalk, the LED indicator on the handlebar turned from green to flashing red, the scooter started beeping, and within a few feet the scooter automatically came to a stop. Our test rider demonstrated how the scooter would only become rideable again after walking the scooter back to the street.

When you visualize someone riding a shared e-scooter, is that person a 65-year-old grandmother? Teri Michaud might just change your perception of who micromobility is for in this guest post by Superpedestrian’s Shawna Kitzman.