These New Transportation Technologies Will Have Major Impacts on Urban Transportation and Carbon Emissions

 

What do scooters, skateboards, bicycles, and carshares have in common?

Unlike the over-hyped Segway, these new transportation technologies will have a major impact on urban transportation. While the Segway appears to have been relegated to being a niche tool for the tourism industry (and the police), these oldies but goodies will actually revolutionize the way people travel in cities in a way that has major impacts on carbon emissions, car ownership, and public transportation usage.

Thanks to continuing advancements in battery technology people have started putting affordable, rechargeable, and fairly lightweight batteries on everything that moves. Scooters, skateboards, bicycles, and one-wheel skateboards now come in battery-powered (or batter assist) versions that are importantly smaller, lighter, and cooler-looking than the Segway.

Some electric skateboards have ranges of up to 20 miles! While 3–5 mile ranges are more common/affordable. Think about that. If you live in a city and have a commute of 5–10 miles, a skateboard (or e-bike) might be your best option. No parking to find or pay for. No traffic to sit in. No waiting for the bus. If your commute is longer than that, but you have public transportation just a bit too far to walk to from your place, now you can take a skateboard or scooter to the bus or subway.

If you prefer bikes, or not owning your transportation devices, you can now rent bikes, e-bikes, or powered scooters to get you where you need to go, whether that’s to work, the train station, or the grocery store. Some services like Lime bikes and scooters allow you to park wherever you want.

When urban consumers are faced with the decision of buying a car, paying for insurance, maintenance, and parking or using a bike, scooter, or skateboard (all potentially battery powered) combined with public transit to get around, many are choosing the later. This becomes an even easier decision to make when cars-on-demand are readily available. Why own a car when you can take an Uber or Lyft for a short trip or drive yourself on your out-of-town weekend trip using a carshare like Zipcar, Getaround, or GIG.

More Info:

Lime Bike — Lime has dockless bicycles and electric scooters you can rent via an app. You only pay for the time your are using it.

Ford Go Bikes — These bikes have stations located through the Bay Area. Bikes can be rented using a variety of plans. Stations are often located near public transit, parks, etc. which make them a useful link in the non-car transportation system. You can even use your Clipper card (commuter pass that works on BART, buses, and ferries) to checkout a bike.

Jump Bike — JUMP bikes are battery-powered bikes that can be locked to traditional bike racks. JUMP is available in UBER.

Electric Skateboards — With ranges of 3–20 miles, and speeds much faster than walking (or even traditional biking!), battery-powered skateboards are small in size, not super heavy, and way more fun than driving in traffic.

Getaround and ZipCar are car sharing services. People who need a car infrequently (say to go buy furniture or get out in nature for the weekend) may benefit from using carsharing combined with the other resources discussed above. Why own a car that you only need once a week?

Climate Benefits:

I was a research fellow for Project Drawdown, that lead to the publication of a NYT bestselling book on global warming solutions. The book, Drawdown, which contains detailed information on the top 80 existing solutions (and 20 coming attractions) ranked Electric Bikes #69 and Ridesharing #75, both of which have the potential to boost use of Mass Transit (#37) and Trains (#74).