This piece was initially posted on The Urban Phoenix and is reprinted right here with permission.
Bikes have understandably and justifiably been a key transportation “alternative” for people in low-income communities to entry jobs, assets, and public transit. Many cities have phenomenal packages and organizations that join people who’re in want of dependable transportation with low-cost or free used bikes. For instance, in my house metropolis of Rochester, New York, R Community Bikes connects people with bikes for sensible and inexpensive transportation and mobility.
But bikes are nonetheless comparatively cumbersome, maintenance-dependent micro-mobility choices. Why, as a substitute, are we not speaking about the ultra-practical, decrease price various of the kick-scooter as a way of equitable transportation?
Four years in the past, I requested the query of why kick-scooters aren’t on the socially acceptable radar with regard to city micro-mobility. Far extra transportable than a motorbike and way more secure than a skateboard, the potential of a kick scooter to fill the one- to three-mile hole for errands, commuting and “last-mile” wants when paired with mass transit is actually distinctive. But outdoors of main metros like New York and DC, non-electric scooters are seen as youngsters’s toys, not transportation options.
This social dismissal of scooters as a respectable piece of mobility for folks of all revenue ranges is unlucky, to place it evenly. The potential to take the identical power an individual spends strolling whereas rising the velocity (and thus sensible vary) by 100 to 400 p.c may very well be a recreation changer for the city commuter of all socioeconomic statuses. No motors, no gears, no tires to inflate… kick scooters are the eight- to 10-pound transportable city transit answer that has but to be realized. And one should purchase a sturdy, nicely constructed kick scooter for beneath $100 new.
But the tragedy that’s the want to evolve to the socially acceptable picture makes kick scooters an undesirable choice, and one which most individuals would sparsely think about. If these micro-mobility heroes had been accepted as a commonplace city transportation answer for our poorest residents who want extra choices, in addition to for our middle-class metropolis dwellers who want extra decisions, our cities would enormously profit.
Imagine for a second that kick scooters had been socially acceptable and free from the stigma of being a youngsters’s toy. We might see kick scooter shops the identical approach we see bike outlets… locations the place you can stroll in and buy a high-quality mobility answer for little or no cash. We might get our kick scooters oiled-up and maintained there, and possibly choose up just a few equipment to make our scooter-commutes extra palatable. Folks who’re compelled to stroll to work or to the retailer might buy a kick scooter cheaply and scale back their journey instances by as much as 400 p.c. We would embrace the transit rider who hops on the bus holding a folded kick scooter, appreciating the scooter’s potential to offer last-mile, multi-modal connectivity for city residents.
It’s foolish proper? The kick scooter is a particularly sensible, low-cost city transportation answer … however the social stigma related to kick scooters universally inhibits the proliferation of scooters as a viable transportation various. My hope is that, in the future, a advertising and marketing marketing campaign arises that establishes a way of legitimacy for the kick scooter as a sensible and inexpensive technique of mobility. If scooters are repeatedly dismissed as a youngsters’s toy, we’re actually negating the potential of a low price transit answer that may profit city-dwellers from all walks of life.