The dockless micro mobility revolution

Dockless shared micro mobility promises radical improvements in accessibility, congestion, and air pollution in urban environments, by offering a cleaner and more efficient alternative to the car.

However, in order to flourish in cities, micro mobility will need to overcome a range of objections around safety, and will need support from innovative infrastructure, regulation and policy. This paper examines the levers stakeholders have to promote dockless shared micro mobility so as to realise its benefits in the safest and quickest way possible.

Positives of dockless shared micro mobility

Unleashing the dockless micro mobility revolution

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Accessibility

micro mobility can reduce dependency on public transport and time lost to road vehicle congestion, broadening the areas of cities that are accessible to individuals.

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Commerce

city businesses benefit from the fact that micro mobility users may stop far more easily at a far greater range of retail and leisure premises, reducing barriers to physical shopping on beleaguered high streets.

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Tourism

micro mobility represents an attractive and convenient option for tourists to move around a city above ground and thereby retain easy access to its attractions, sites and businesses.

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Congestion

micro-mobility solutions can reduce private car usage and take pressure off stressed urban traffic systems and parking real estate.

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Infrastructure

one road of average width is sufficient to enable the passage of 2,000 passengers in cars per hour, or 14,000 individual micro-mobility vehicles, implying that they harbour significant potential to increase passenger traffic volume without increasing congestion. Studies from Australia and the US have shown minimal impact on private car travel time from converting road lanes to cycle lanes.

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Pollution

the transport sector was responsible for 20.3% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2019, making it the second largest contributing sector. Of these sector emissions, private cars are the largest source, accounting for over 50%. Research has shown that shared electric scooters emit roughly half the amount of carbon per mile travelled of a private car, suggesting that they can significantly lower both emissions and air pollution.

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Economy

government research assesses the annual cost of congestion to the Irish economy to be over €358 million, forecast to rise to over €2 billion per year in 2033.4 A transition to dockless shared micro mobility, together with other car alternatives such as public transport and walking, can reduce these costs and reduce constraints on productivity and growth, as well as generate financial savings for city residents when compared to car ownership.

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For more on electric and autonomous vehicles, and the likely effects of mobility disruptors on Irish business, please contact the team below. We'd be delighted to hear from you.