Electric Scooters - Micro-mobility in NYC

New York, NY, USA

By Daniel Eizo Miyagusko
transportation, transportation planning, planning, scooters, electric scooters, micro-mobility, subway stations, subway lines, subway, ny, new york, nyc,

Electric Scooters have been a theme of discussion lately in Transportation planning, especially in the last mile and micro-mobility topic. Companies like Bird and Lime have been dropping Electric Scooters in as many Cities in US as they can, and many times creating problems with the local population. The problems caused in those cities are a matter of business operation model. Electric Scooter are considered one of the best options of individual transportation by many specialists. This project propose to show the possibilities for electric scooters for NYC. It consists of a map showing what would a round trip with a Electric scooter in NYC. Using subway stations as an anchor, this map traces a 4 miles radius in the selected station map in the drop-down menu.

Electric Scooters have been a theme of discussion lately in Transportation planning, especially in the last mile and micro-mobility topic. Companies like Bird and Lime have been dropping Electric Scooters in as many Cities in US as they can, and many times creating problems with the local population. The problems caused in those cities are a matter of business operation model. Electric Scooter are considered one of the best options of individual transportation by many specialists.

This project propose to show the possibilities for electric scooters for NYC. It consists of a map showing what would a round trip with a Electric scooter in NYC. To complete this map I added the subway stations and subway lines data set from Open Data NYC over a base map created in map box.

After that, through research, I’ve calculated an average distance based on the battery range of electric scooters of the main brands in the market: XiaoMi, GoTrax and Segway. The result was a range of 4 miles (30 min ride) that was connected to each subway station through a combination of Turf and event listeners.

Through the analysis of the map it is possible to provide some initial conclusions. Considering the average commute in NYC of 40 min (calculated by the census), it is possible to conclude that the 4 miles radius is probably what would compensate as a commuting tool. As a commuting tools, there are some location cases that can benefit more from electric scooters that others. Communities that live more than ½ mile from subway stations, people that live close to bridges, communities that work within the 4 miles radius. If electric scooter became a thing in NYC, not only commuter could benefit from that but also retail, in particular local mom and pop business. Retail is directly connected to accessibility and traffic. While the main locations are usually dominated by big chains, what is left is dedicated for the local retail. As long as they have a competitive product the customer be increased by the adoption of the electric scooters.