Cities have finally figured out what to do about those electric scooters you see everywhere.
in venture capital to subsidize their rapid expansion into new markets. Providing more trips in a city allows e-scooter companies to spread out fixed costs . Kyle Rowe, Spin’s head of local government partnerships, says that managing a larger e-scooter fleet enables his company to invest more in low-income programming and safety education programs.
Simply increasing the number of scooters attached to a permit is all gravy for the operators, but there is a wrinkle: Even as cities expand the total number of permitted devices, many are getting ready to shrink the number of operator licenses they give out. That makes the value of a permit even higher, since more vehicles are allowed with each one, but it also means more companies will be shut out.
In Washington, D.C. the number of permitted e-scooter companies will fall from eight last year to four this spring. Department of Transportation Director Jeff Marootian says his agency wants to improve the user experience for scooter riders: “I know people who like e-scooters, but they don’t like having to jump between apps. So we’re trying to help you have more availability, and less headache finding e-scooters.
Cities like D.C. award their operating permits through open and competitive application processes. Although the e-scooter companies generally agree that shrinking the total number of permits can improve user experience and boost the industry’s profitability, they have too much at stake to stay silent if they aren’t ultimately awarded a permit, especially in a major market.
Emily Warren, the director of policy at urban planning consultancy Nelson Nygaard thinks fights over the yanked contracts is inevitable. “In the abstract, all the operators think it’s a bad thing to have so many brands in a single market. But in a particular city, they have everything to lose if they don’t get a permit. So they fight back.” Indeed they do.
Norge Siste Nytt, Norge Overskrifter
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