Spring is approaching, providing warmer weather and thus opportunities to move around cities with smaller modes of transport such as bicycles and e-scooters. Integrating transport modes in a seamless manner is a great challenge to achieve sustainable transport systems for smarter more sustainable cities. Each mode of transport has its own advantages and satisfies different mobility purposes and needs. A new concept for smaller vehicles innovates in the pursuit of more seamless transport integration. The core of new electrified micro-vehicle concept is to combine design and user needs for easier usage within traditional transportation modes (e.g. public transport) in both urban and suburban areas.

Various e-kickscooters pilots are now underway to test out these smaller vehicle mobility concepts in urban and suburban localities. The pilots explore feasibility of business models and potential connections to the circular economy. 

One such pilot involves commuter employees from Turin (Italy) based companies 5T and Punch Torino using the e-kickscooter to test multimodality (the combination of different modes of transport) and integration with public transport. The second pilot takes place at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), where students and faculty staff will test the scooters to commute and move around campus. The third pilot is based in Brussels (Belgium), where Tractebel aims to test a corporate fleet of e-kickscooters with the goal of replacing company cars with other forms of greener mobility. (The cities in which the pilots are based are all ICLEI Member Cities).

The pilots are part of an initiative from the mobility project, DREEM, of which ICLEI Europe is a partner. After overcoming setbacks and challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project will launch the testing of  innovative e-kickscooter and ultra-protective and ultra-compact inflatable helmet this spring. Each pilot will recruit about 50 testers, who will record their riding experience in a daily journal and will participate in focus groups to gather additional feedback and further improve the experience.

Learn more about the pilots and check out the innovative e-kickscooters and helmets.

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