Chicago did a dockless bike-share pilot in the South Side this summer. This Chicago Tribune article, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/wisniewski/ct-biz-dockless-bi... https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/wisniewski/ct-biz-dockless-bikes-numbers-getting-around-20181126-story.html reveals some important points that we should consider in designing our dockless e-scooter pilot.
We will need a robust education and promotion program. Advocates expect share bike use to be higher in low income neighborhoods than high income neighborhoods but Chicago saw the opposite. While the share-bikes just appeared in low income neighborhoods with little information about them, in the affluent Beverly neighborhood that saw maximum ridership, Martin Joyce of the alderman’a office said, "“We promoted the heck out of it. We did email blasts; we had local media coverage.” and "even hosted a meeting at which businesses were encouraged to have bike racks on their properties”.
We will need enough e-scooters that users can easily find one when they need it. An insufficient number of bikes available can make the pilot fail. Four vendors participated. One pulled out because of the limit.
We should be sure that e-scooters are available on routes that have the least risky roads. Having bicycling infrastructure (or teaching people to ride in traffic) can make the pilot succeed or fail. “...dropping bikes into neighborhoods with major barriers to bicycling alone doesn’t get many more people riding,” said Kyle Whitehead, spokesman for the Active Transportation Alliance, an advocacy group. “Increasing bicycling requires investing in on-street biking, walking and transit infrastructure, and working with communities to identify and address the biggest local transportation issues.”
“Our residents loved it,” Joyce said of the pilot program. He said the ward also is open to electric scooters, which are being considered by the city’s Department of Transportation.
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