The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), an association of 69 major North American cities, today released its annual comprehensive count of all shared micromobility (shared bike and e-scooter) trips in the United States. Key findings from NACTO’s 2018 shared micromobility ridership report: “With tens of millions of trips each year, shared micromobility continues to be a popular form of transportation,” said Corinne Kisner, Executive Director of NACTO. “Cities are proactively thinking about how to harness the incredible potential of these shared services in the public right-of-way. As stewards of the public realm, it is vital that cities retain authority over their streets. State legislators must ensure that cities have the ability to plan, regulate, and manage shared micromobility systems for safe, sustainable, and equitable outcomes.” “Managing the many new shared vehicle types on city streets is a challenge,” said Kate Fillin-Yeh, Director of Strategy for NACTO. “The data cities receive from vendors can be spotty, complicating efforts to regulate systems or make good policies. Much of the equipment is new and largely untested at scale, and the market is changing rapidly, with an uncertain financial outlook. The most successful shared micromobility systems have been planned hand-in-hand with cities, and we’re excited to help cities create and support transportation options that shift more trips to sustainable, safe modes.” “Shared micromobility has the opportunity to be a game-changer for those without the means, ability, or desire to maintain a private vehicle,” said Nicole Payne, Program Manager at NACTO. “When cities, system operators, and communities plan together, cities can ensure the best outcomes for their residents: providing truly reliable, affordable, and easy-to-access transportation, expanding access to opportunity.” “Bike share in New York City has been a major success, helping make cycling our fastest-growing mode of travel,” said New York City Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “At the same time, we believe bike share’s growth has also helped contribute to our Vision Zero goals, as last year, the safest ever on New York City streets, also saw the fewest-ever cyclist fatalities. We always appreciate NACTO’s take on the lightning-fast trends in shared micromobility, and New York City will try to remain nimble in 2019 as we grow the Citi Bike system, which accounts for nearly half the nation’s bike-share rides. Simultaneously, we plan this year to expand our dockless bike share pilot, which we began last year.” “Year after year, bike share proves itself to be a force to reckoned with in the mobility landscape,” said Waffiyyah Murray, Better Bike Share Partnership Program Manager, City of Philadelphia. “From reducing financial barriers as an affordable option for regular users, to addressing difficult commutes by ensuring seamless transition to mass transit, bike share continues to serve as a model for what equitable transportation systems should look like. With the popular emergence of scooter share, we look forward to the onset of work of dismantling barriers to equitable mobility in this new space and meeting the needs of underserved communities nationwide.” “We are proud of the progress we have made toward our Go Boston 2030 goal for bike share,” said Vineet Gupta, Director of Policy and Planning, Boston Transportation Department. “With last year’s expansion, approximately 85% of our residents can now walk to a public bike share station in 5-7 minutes, which means that they have a reliable, low-cost option for reaching jobs, educational opportunities, and open space. Making sure our residents can choose to bike is a major city goal, and we are coupling bike share expansion with the acceleration of our bike network build-out.” “Santa Monica is a launching pad for new shared micromobility systems, said Francie Stefan, Acting Chief Mobility Officer for the City of Santa Monica. “We took our lessons learned from operating one of the country’s first smart bike share programs, Breeze, to thoughtfully balance demand, public safety, and shared use of the public right-of-way. E-scooters fulfill a demand for short, quick trips and were quickly absorbed into the mobility ecosystem, and our values of innovation and sustainable transportation enabled us to incorporate them and craft our Shared Mobility Pilot Program, where we continue to learn and innovate.” “The increasing popularity of shared micromobility trips is great news for cities and anyone who works on tackling the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions—transportation,” said Lina Fedirko, Senior Program Associate, ClimateWorks Foundation. “Shared micromobility is one of the most energy and carbon-efficient modes of travel, and its rapid growth provides an opportunity to reduce emissions faster. This mode is also showing early promise of addressing last-mile connectivity gaps in cities, and enabling the reallocation of public space for shared and active mobility.” NACTO’s report also details average trip duration, distances, and prices per ride, and includes comprehensive charts and graphs showing the growth of shared micromobility across the U.S., as well as the changing landscape of this fast-growing and rapidly-evolving form of transportation. NACTO’s 2018 shared micromobility ridership report was funded by the Better Bike Share Partnership and by ClimateWorks foundation. Visit nacto.org/shared-micromobility-2018 for the full report, or download a printable version (pdf). About the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) NACTO is an association of 80 major North American cities and transit agencies formed to exchange transportation ideas, insights, and practices and cooperatively approach national transportation issues. The organization’s mission is to build cities as places for people, with safe, sustainable, accessible, and equitable transportation choices that support a strong economy and vibrant quality of life. Contact: Alexander Engel [email protected] | 646-324-2919 ###
The number of journeys taken on shared bikes and e-scooters in the US more than doubled to 84 million last year. The figures, released by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, showed that scooters were the most used form of shared micromobility transportation, with 38.5 million trips, followed by station-based bikes on 36.5 million. In a report published this week, the association said it was “encouraged” by the growth of shared, electric vehicles such as Tesla’s Model S and BMW i3.