Shared scooters arrived in Marseille (FR) on January 2019, when Lime launched the first service with 150 vehicles. As the second most populated city in France with 868,000 inhabitants, Marseille is a major focus for (almost) all the operators with its welcoming weather… and despite not being the most cycling-friendly city (lack of infrastructure, traffic, …
Continue reading "Scooter jam on La Cannebière, Marseille"
Shared scooters arrived in Marseille (FR) on January 2019, when Lime launched the first service with 150 vehicles. As the second most populated city in France with 868,000 inhabitants, Marseille is a major focus for (almost) all the operators with its welcoming weather… and despite not being the most cycling-friendly city (lack of infrastructure, traffic, …
Continue reading "Scooter jam on La Cannebière, Marseille"
People who are not experts in blockchain (I’m included) would have imagined finding the first application of the technology within the shared micromobility industry in the payment process, where it is mostly used so far. It came back in the news for a different purpose when Helium, a US company developing a blockchain-based hotspots solution, …
Continue reading "Will blockchain be a game-changer for shared vehicles geolocation?"
I have already written about the rapid growth of bikes-as-a-service, or bike subscription services. The opportunity to have a bike available without bothering with its maintenance is appealing to many new (or not) riders who switched from public transports during the pandemic. Last week, the European leader Swapfiets announced a kind of mise en abyme: …
Continue reading "Parts-as-a-service"
The electric moped industry in Paris is holding its breath. Deputy Mayor for Transport David Belliard confirmed on June 15th that riders of internal combustion engine (ICE) motorbikes and mopeds will have to pay for parking within the city limits. With much of Paris’ 500,000 privately-owned mopeds and motorbikes affected by the change, could this decision trigger …
Continue reading "Paris, start your e-engines!"
In this new article of the fluctuo series, we explore the market of shared mopeds in the Netherlands. An insightful dive away from “my” micromobility world that also provides lessons for the future of shared micromobility in the country. The Netherlands is very unique when it comes to transport culture; in Amsterdam for example, cycling represents …
Continue reading "Moped-sharing: the Dutch connection"
London surfed the different bike-share waves when it hit Europe. The Santander Cycles public bike-share service was launched in 2010, not long after the successful experiences of Vélo’v (Lyon/FRA) or Vélib’ (Paris/FRA). The free-floating operators were also keen on operating in the British capital from 2018, but it ended with a long list of failure: …
Continue reading "💥 London’s shared micromobility boom!"
The recent history of shared micromobility took us from dock-based to dockless solutions. The latest option allowed a wider and faster adoption of those services across the world, not needing important investment and infrastructure work to set up stations. But as operators are now heavily working on optimising their unit economics, automatisation is a must. …
Continue reading "Wireless charging, the next step towards sustainable shared micromobility?"
2020, the pandemic year, saw an impressive worldwide boom in the use of bicycles, and cargo bikes are no exception. In Germany, 103,200 cargo bikes have been sold in 2020 (124 vehicles per 100,000 inh.). It is a 35% increase compared to 2019, with 3 out of 4 being electrically assisted. In France, sales of …
Continue reading "💪🚲 – The strength of shared cargo-bikes"
Don’t be taken for a ride with images of snowy landscapes and horse-drawn carriages, the Baltics and Poland are welcoming markets for shared mobility services. Those countries have turned to innovative car alternative solutions early on. They also have given birth to some of the most dynamic shared mobility companies in Europe. Estonia is home …
Continue reading "Heading East! Identifying market opportunities in Eastern European countries"
On March 31st, Zoov released a largely teased video titled “Fast Forward”. Many shared micromobility industry leaders were waiting for the big announcement : Smoove and Zoov are joining forces (merging) to create a European sustainable mobility champion. Smoove is a well-established and renowned leader of the bike-share industry since 2008, providing dock-based solutions to 23 …
Continue reading "Smoove x Zoov, behind the announcement"
The introduction of the MDS by the LA DOT in april 2019 started a war between the Army of Mobility Defenders and the Army for Data Privacy. Why is it all about? First… … what is MDS? Let’s start with a short explanation of what MDS is. From the GitHub page: The Mobility Data Specification …
Continue reading "Micromobility, the forum for mobility data privacy"
Since the emergence of shared mobility services, Paris has been one of the major open labs in Europe for shared micromobility services. The major Asian dockless bike-share operators launched massive fleets in late 2017– Gobee, oBike and ofo left, only Mobike remains in the French capital – before the waves of shared e-scooters hit the …
Continue reading "Analysis of Paris’ e-scooter RFP"
The last couple of weeks have been crucial for the Santa Monica based company Bird, one of the leaders of the booming e-scooter sharing industry. For months specialists are pointing at the loss-making business model Bird and its competitors have adopted. And Bird is the first to learn from it, totally mutating its own model. …
Continue reading "Bird’s business model switch"
The Uber/Lime deal is THE major shared micromobility related news that appeared during the COVID-19 crisis. Under the US$170M investment in Lime, Uber also transferred its money-losing micromobility branch Jump to its former competitor. The transfer has massive impacts on the whole Jump structure, would it be for the HR or assets management. Impacts that …
Continue reading "The dark side of the Uber/Lime deal"
