But Cities Aren’t Making It Easy.
NACTO’s new report shows that shared micromobility is becoming more popular, even as the price of renting a shared bike or scooter continues to rise.
People want to ride bikes and scooters, per a new report on shared micromobility from the National Association of City Transportation Officials. It’s hardly a revelation — but many cities have yet to match rider enthusiasm with the financial investment, political will and physical infrastructure that it takes to keep bike and scooter share going.
“It’s a really popular form of public transportation and people are using it that way,” says Camille Boggan, program manager of policy and practice for NACTO.
In the U.S. and Canada, people took 157 million rides in 2023. That’s a 20% increase from the previous year, beating the previous pre-pandemic record of 147 million rides in 2019.
“They’re not just using it for recreational rides and it’s not just tourists,” says Boggan. “People are using it to go to the grocery store. They use it to go to church, to the doctor.”
But there are challenges for riders, cities and operators. Last year, Bird declared bankruptcy and merged with Spin, while Superpedestrian pulled out of the U.S. market altogether.
Even long standing bike share systems can fall victim to the whims of leaders who are not committed to investing in greener modes of transportation. Houston recently lost its bike share system, ending 12 years of operations for BCycle after a new mayor hostile to bike and pedestrian improvements overhauled the METRO Houston board.
If cities want to encourage people to ride a bike or scooter instead of getting into a car, they will have to figure out how to fund it — or in other words, put their money where their carbon reduction goals are.
Boggan says that, unfortunately, private foundations seem less likely to be interested in long-term sponsorship of bike share. One exception: Bike Share Toronto launched a five-year partnership with Tangerine Bank in 2023, allowing them to add 380 new stations.
Despite funding challenges, some cities and transit agencies have made an investment in encouraging people to ride bikes. In the Bay Area, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is investing $20 million in federal climate funding to expand Bay Wheels and reduce the cost of riding. And in Boston, the city is subsidizing bike share passes — low-income riders can get an annual pass for only $5.
The future of shared micromobility might look like what happened in Austin, with CapMetro, the region’s transit agency, fully integrating bike share into its system.
Addressing affordability for riders is crucial, according to the report.
“The cost is making it less appealing than, say, taking the bus or even taking rideshare,” says Boggan.
Trips on dockless e-scooters or e-bikes can be extremely expensive with riders paying up to $9 for a six minute ride. Those costs can add up.
“If you’re visiting NYC, a 15-minute e-bikeshare trip now costs $10.19 … That’s 3.5x the subway fare,” writes mobility writer David Zipper on X. “What the hell are we doing?”
Bike share systems often tack on an extra per minute charge for e-bikes. And e-bikes, which are extremely popular with riders, according to the report, are more expensive to purchase and maintain.
“Very often, bike share and e-scooter riders end up paying the full cost of that, unlike personal vehicles or public transit, where a lot of those costs are subsidized,” says Boggan.
The report recommends making bike share more affordable by eliminating sales tax for bike and scooter share. Boggan points out that even on public bike share systems like Capital Bikeshare in Metro D.C. and CitiBike in New York City, annual passholders must still pay sales tax on every ride, from $0.10 to $0.60.
“If cities want to get people out of cars and onto bikes or onto other more sustainable forms of transportation, it has to be affordable and it has to be almost comparable to using other forms of public transit,” says Boggan.