Micromobility is here to stay

According to another McKinsey consumer survey back in 2020, the use of micromobility would increase in the 2021-2022 post-pandemic biennium as long as micromobility operators rearrange their services to the new normal.  

In fact, it shows that the number of people willing to use micromobility vehicles on a regular basis could increase by 12% for shared micromobility services compared to pre-Covid levels.  

Before the pandemic the main pain to solve for customers was the ‘time-to-destination’ in the urban experience, definitely faster with a micromobility vehicle. During these two years the risk of infection has contributed strongly to the adoption of this way of transport too.

Given that shared micromobility vehicles help people commute individually, thus in a safer way than carsharing or taxi, the rapid growth of micromobility in the first post-pandemic period does not sound odd.  

On the other hand, nowadays more people are growing aware of the importance of environmental sustainability and micromobility helps significantly in lowering Co2 emissions.  

McKinsey, in its latest study, submitted a variety of transport options to the cluster such as:  

• Bikes/e-bikes 
• Mopeds/e-mopeds 
• E-kickscooters 
• Cars/other means of traditional transport  

For what concerns e-bikes, McKinsey researchers found out that a positive attitude towards their use is higher in countries with a secular biking tradition.  

EU countries in general are keener to use bikes and e-bikes for their daily commute, as shown in the infographic on the left

So why do people prefer e-bikes over e-kickscooters or mopeds? 

The answer is simple: bikes can cover long distances and allow the transport of bags, while being less expensive and easier to drive than mopeds (i.e., no driving license required). However, some studies report that users who specifically use sharing services also differ according to the various modes of transport available (car sharing, bike sharing, kick scooter sharing, moped sharing) based on characteristics such as age, number of children, number of private cars available and/or driving license, but also based on the frequency of use and type of travel.* 

Moreover, with e-bikes people are allowed to access the so-called ‘LEZ’ (Low Emission Zones), very diffused in many cities across Europe. 

Low Emission Zones are geographical areas where vehicles with high polluting emissions cannot enter or have to pay a higher entry fee. 

These rules are governed by single countries and, in some cases, single regions.  

This report has significant implications for all transport and micromobility stakeholders and leads us to a consideration about the future of both industries that should move towards a more integrated and multimodal reality. 

In fact, implementing multimodality between public transports and micromobility systems is possible by choosing the right technologies and the right partners. This can also help both public transport and shared-micromobility operators in offering services that covers first and last mile, increasing the customers base as experienced in the BiTiBi research.

Thus, customers have the possibility to plan and pay their travels, optimize commuting time and use a single app.