Abstract:

Finding sustainable and adaptive urban transportation solutions has the ability to shape the quality of life in cities. However, one major challenge involves reducing motorised private transportation in urban areas, which is largely responsible for noise and air pollution as well as increasingly long waiting times in congestion. To this end, innovative door-to-door solutions are essential to meet these challenges and offer incentives for alternatives to motorised private transportation. This project focused on electrified, ultra‐light, foldable scooters and their private usage. The aim was to scientifically verify the shifting or avoidance of individual distances covered by car through providing a new and legal mode of transportation in everyday life. This article explores whether e‐scooters present themselves as a new and sustainable mobility solution in urban areas. Particularly with regard to covering the last mile, e-scooters with the aforementioned characteristics represent a missing link for closing the mobility chain. Moreover, they serve as a climate- and health-friendly option for innovative mobility concepts in cities, since they are-compared to most other vehicles-quiet and do not emit direct gaseous emissions. The conducted study provides an overview of various use cases for e-scooters. It summarises the conclusions drawn from fleet tests and presents the evaluation of traffic experts regarding e-scooters’ potential. The fleet tests and the expert evaluation revealed that e-scooters-like bicycles-represent an additional mode of transportation, but are not expected to become a mass phenomenon. Worldwide experiences of e‐scooter sharing systems illustrate that unregulated implementation can lead to massive problems.