Shift Magazine - December 2020 - 15

Companies such
as Lime are seeing
" more trips in
neighborhoods. "

survival
smallest
of
the

Scooter, e-bike companies
adapt to shift in commute
patterns by consumers

ALEXA ST. JOHN

hough many of their would-be
customers no longer have to go to
downtown offices and are more frequently sheltering in place, scooter
and e-bike companies have still found
ways to make money in the pandemic.
The pandemic hit micromobility early
on, with riders concerned about cleanliness of the shared devices. But as
the health crisis continued, more riders
deferred to micromobility as a safe
alternative to buses, subways, taxis and
commuter trains - all modes that seem
crowded, have poor ventilation or simply
don't feel COVID-free.
So for now, the working-from-home
trend isn't impacting the profitability of
bike- and scooter-sharing platforms, and
the shared-bike boom continues as more
cities work to incorporate micromobility.
" Rather than seeing downtown to
downtown, we're seeing more trips in
neighborhoods themselves, " Sam Sadle,
senior director of government relations for
North America at Lime, told Automotive
News in November. " We've seen shifts
in times. We used to have big spikes in
the morning commute, big spikes in the
evening commute. Now we don't have as
much of a morning spike, but the evening
spike lasts longer. People aren't commuting, but when they're getting off work
from home, they're then hopping on a bike
or a scooter to go to the grocery store or
whatever it is. "
Shared bikes and scooters remain an

Shared devices raised
fears early in the
pandemic, but e-bikes
and the like are now
seen as safe alternatives
to buses and taxis.

alternative for those who do not own a car
or bike, a Lyft spokeswoman said, adding:
" While tourism is down in many of our
markets, we've noticed increased bikeshare usage by locals exploring or traveling within their own communities. "
There are other opportunities for these
companies: Scooter-share provider Bird
now both rents and sells its devices.
These
companies
have
largely
rebounded from the early days of COVID19, said Siddharth Jaiswal, senior manager
leading the automotive practice at market
intelligence provider Netscribes, but he
expects micromobility companies to join
the last-mile delivery trend. " Diversification
is something which I believe most companies will think of, " he said.

But Kersten Heineke, a partner leading
the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility
in Europe, said he thinks these companies
likely won't seek additional forms of revenue or try to diversify their portfolios in
ways that other mobility players - such
as Uber with Uber Eats - have.
" I would say it's more difficult to find
other creative options here, " he said.
To Heineke, the path to success for
micromobility companies is less about
seeking other business opportunities and
more about operational efficiency and success in their core business.
" At least for the next two to three years,
the possibilities in terms of growth are so
huge that I would focus on that, " Heineke
said. n

december 2020 * shift

Shift Magazine - December 2020

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