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    1. Alt. Mobility
    2. Shared Mobility

    Could better measures mean better management for urban micro-mobility options?

    April 22, 2020
    A new report from Ramboll Smart Mobility suggests 12 goals may offer a more standard measure of how micro-mobility options are serving cities.
    Markus Spiski/Unsplash
    Jump Bike Markus Spiske Unsplash

    A report from Ramboll Smart Mobility, a design, engineering and consultancy company based in Denmark, urges urban planners to establish more standard points of measure to understand and manage the impact micro-mobility options have within a community.  

    “Lack of data and metrics used to evaluate the impact of micro-mobility programs make it difficult for cities and operators to assess if a micro-mobility solution serves the community well. As of now, there is a need for more accessible data and a framework if we want to manage the future implementation of micro-mobility services in cities,” Ramboll said.

    Edvin Johnson/Unsplash
    Lime Scooter Edvin Johnson Unsplash
    The report, “Achieving Sustainable Micro-Mobility,” grew from an initial six-month micro-mobility pilot program evaluation Ramboll was working on for the city of Hoboken, N.J. The report examines micro-mobility in 15 cities, five in the United States, one in Canada, seven in Europe, one in Japan and one in New Zealand, and proposes 12 strategic goals that offer a framework from which to base micro-mobility performance marks.

    “The assessment work we did for Hoboken led to the identification of 12 universal strategic goals. They function as a framework that can help cities of all sizes manage new mobility offerings such as shared scooter and bike schemes,” said Ian Sacs, market manager at Ramboll Smart Mobility.

    Ramboll explains that in addition to the evaluation of the cities, a range of stakeholders contributed to the development of the framework including public transit agencies, micro-mobility operators and regional expert organizations.

    “The Smart Mobility team wanted to move the discussion away from general statistics about micro-mobility and towards the identification of strategic goals and tangible key performance indicators (KPI) that can be measured by any city to better understand how successful and sustainable they are in providing new mobility options to their communities, and where they can improve” said Sacs.

    The full report is available here.

    About the Author

    Mischa Wanek-Libman | Editor in Chief

    Mischa Wanek-Libman serves as editor in chief of Mass Transit magazine. She is responsible for developing and maintaining the magazine’s editorial direction and is based in the western suburbs of Chicago.

    Wanek-Libman has spent more than 20 years covering transportation issues including construction projects and engineering challenges for various commuter railroads and transit agencies. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content. 

    She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and serves as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.  

    She is a graduate of Drake University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a major in magazine journalism and a minor in business management.

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