Shared electric scooters (e-scooters) are fast becoming a mobility option across the U.S. Many cities are permitting their operation, in part, as a way to provide another option to driving private cars. This could reduce private vehicle miles travelled (VMT), congestion, and emissions, helping cities meet major policy objectives. In the Spring 2019, the City of Portland launched a yearlong shared e-scooter pilot program. The City’s program focused on giving people access to a new transportation option while also ensuring that e-scooters will support five…Read more
Shared electric scooters (e-scooters) are fast becoming a mobility option across the U.S. Many cities are permitting their operation, in part, as a way to provide another option to driving private cars. This could reduce private vehicle miles travelled (VMT), congestion, and emissions, helping cities meet major policy objectives. In the Spring 2019, the City of Portland launched a yearlong shared e-scooter pilot program. The City’s program focused on giving people access to a new transportation option while also ensuring that e-scooters will support five critical City goals:
1) Increase the share of trips made using active and low-carbon transportation modes;
2) Prevent fatalities and serious injuries on Portland streets;
3) Improve pedestrian safety, accessibility, and convenience for people of all ages and abilities;
4) Provide equitable transportation services; and
5) Reduce air pollution, including climate pollution (1).
Unique travel behavior patterns are observed as shared electric scooters (e-scooters) provided by private operators expand into U.S. cities. Three separate years of e-scooter ridership survey data from the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s E-scooter Pilot Programs were analyzed to ascertain the multi-year cross-sectional and demographic characteristics of e-scooter riders. A binary logistic regression model, descriptive statistics, and multiple regression model are used to analyze e-scooter mode substitution, trip purposes, and travel distance from 2018 to 2020 in Portland, Oregon. Since the introduction of e-scooter in 2018, respondents have been less likely to use their previous transportation, and especially vehicle trips were consistently replaced with e-scooter trips during three different periods of analysis. In 2020, utilitarian trips, work/school trips, and trips for accessing transit stop replaced recreation trips as the primary trip purpose. The travel distance model shows that e-scooters can help to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by replacing car and ride-hail/taxis trips. With the result of this research, this study supports shared e-scooters as a viable transportation mode in the future that can achieve several policy goals, such as climate change, congestion, first/last mile connector to transit, and equity.
