New York City Rolling Out First E-Scooters in the Spring

Three years after Bird first dropped its fleet of e-scooters in Santa Monica and disrupted the shared mobility industry, New York City's first electric scooter pilot programs, scheduled to roll out next spring, will bring e-scooters to several boroughs(not including Manhattan). The city hopes this new micro-mobility option will fill gaps in areas not served by a subway or bus and reduce the need for short car trips.

A key question, writes Justin Davidson, is whether the city will benefit from its late entry into the e-scooter game. When the two-wheelers were first introduced in 2017, city leaders were blindsided by massive fleets of free-floating scooters that appeared on their streets practically overnight. Rather than scrambling to create post-hoc rules for a brand new form of mobility, New York City has, in theory, had the time to design a regulatory framework that avoids the problems faced by other cities, holds scooter operators accountable, and integrates e-scooters effectively and equitably into the city's transit ecosystem.

Cities have always had to adjust to new modes of transportation. Now, dense urban neighborhoods would benefit from improved public transit options, micro-mobility, and safer infrastructure, according to the article. "Two-buck-a-ride scooters won’t save the world, but they just might persuade a lot of recalcitrant, habitual drivers of the need for protected bike lanes."