What Are the "Next Normals" for Scooters in Austin
Remember the good old days, back in March, when SXSW was just around the corner and it felt like there were about eleventy jillion scooters on Austin's streets? You all remember what happened next, and so do the micromobility companies. Instead of seeing 750,000 rides in March as many had expected (or three times the February total, as had happened in 2019), they ended the month with about 30% of that and headed steeply downhill. In April, there were only 10,551 micromobility trips. By the first of May, eight of the nine companies in the highly competitive and desirable Austin market had pulled their units off the streets.
Back in May, we talked to the one remaining player in Austin – Bird's community relations lead Blanca Laborde – with the intention of writing about a "new normal" for mobility that again seemed just around the corner. "We've gotten a glimpse of what Austin and other cities can look like – fewer cars, safer streets, cleaner air," Laborde told us then. "There are a lot of benefits to personal mobility." That month, there were just under 20,000 trips. "We have a lot of data, so we'll keep looking at that data to adjust our operations to make sure people can get around."
We also talked to other firms as they planned their Austin reemergence, some in new guises due to industry shake-ups augmented by the COVID crash. Then more things happened – protests and unrest, reopenings and now re-closings, with masks and without. As it's settled in that we'll be dealing with COVID-19 impacts for months to come, we're seeing one "next normal" after another in quick succession, what Jason JonMichael, who oversees emerging mobility programs at the Austin Transportation Department, describes as "iterative approaches to things as we manage the next, say, 600 days." There are now four companies back on the street, along with Revel's shared mopeds, which are just now starting to see consistent use.
But JonMichael echoes Laborde when he says that, even in this challenging environment, "We're experiencing a renaissance around personal mobility." It's not hard to see why. The fear of contagion may have forced many back into the safety of their cars, driving alone – but knowing that this was unaffordable, inefficient, and environmentally catastrophic in the long run. Transit would need time to adapt to the new realities, which can happen here as it did in Asia after the SARS epidemic. JonMichael says, "There's not an aversion to transit if it's properly administering safety protocols for current conditions," which has been part of Capital Metro's game plan for restoring ridership after being forced to plead with its customers to stay home even as it suspended fare collection.
Read more: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2020-07-10/what-are-the-next-normals-for-scooters-in-austin/
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