National Center for Sustainable Transportation

This report presents preliminary findings from the American Micromobility Panel, the largest study of shared micromobility services in the United States incorporating riders from multiple major operators. Micromobility services (bike-share and scooter-share) have recently emerged in many U.S. cities. Given that the substitution of bicycling, scooting, and other small vehicle travel for car travel will help cities reach numerous planning goals (e.g., accessibility, emissions, climate, health, equity, etc.), there is a need for understanding the effects of these mobility services. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of micromobility services on travel behavior and outcomes such as mode shift, car ownership, access, equity, safety, and physical activity. The authors surveyed shared micromobility service users in 48 U.S. cities with two different surveys in Summer 2022: a 21-day smartphone-based travel diary (2206 participants with 183,483 trips), and an online follow-up survey of travel diary participants (657 valid responses). Car substitution rates, including private car and ride-hailing, show strong variation by city size and micromobility vehicle type. Through self-report, micromobility seems to have had at least a partial influence on the decision to purchase a car, perhaps as a part of a long-term car use reduction effort/plan. Participants showed positive attitudes toward using public transit, but a small portion of trips to access or egress from transit facilities were made by the participants. Instead, the participants more generally showed a transit substitution effect when using micromobility services. Results also suggest that bike-share and scooter-share use may be influenced in opposing ways by participant income. Half of participants had at least once experienced that they could not find an available vehicle nearby, suggesting a sizeable supply constraint on demand for the services to satisfy existing micromobility user needs. The effect of micromobility services on increasing physical activity was slight given the physical activity it often replaced. Additionally, concerning safety, participants tended to agree that bike-share is safer than scooter-share, and participants tended to agree with the view that using micromobility improved their mental health.

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