Novelty of Scooters Poses Serious Challenge to Cars’ Reign
Shareable small vehicles are picking up steam for last-mile commutes and quick errands.
Who needs a car?
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
The city of Portland, Oregon, is now three weeks into its four-month-long dockless electric scooter pilot program. More than 1,000 of the zippy vehicles racked up more than 96,000 rides in 21 days. It’s a rapid ramp-up for any technology, and it could prove to be a genuine disruptive innovation that challenges the primacy of the automobile.
In their first two weeks, Portland’s scooters tallied twice as many rides as its docked bicycle program did — with roughly the same number of vehicles — in its first two weeks in 2016.1 Further data will reveal how much of this uptake is rapidly scalable, flexibly deployed, and capable of cutting into the car’s space and role on America’s city streets.