How micromobility is reshaping European cities

Sources: BikeBiz, Zag Daily

A pilot project, the Sustainable Urban Transitions (SUT) Lab, is being conducted in Hannover and Seville and is providing data on how the everyday use and management of micromobility is affecting these cities. Initial results reveal how policy, demographics, and infrastructure interact, and point to simple changes which support safe, fair and sustainable mobility.

SUT Lab is a research partnership between ETH Zürich and the Bolt Urban Fund, and was launched to support the implementation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) in European cities. The data published in the first report drew on millions of e-scooter and e-bike trips in Hannover and Seville, building a picture of rider habits and the effects of transport policy and street design.

The findings from two very different cities help to demonstrate that the implementation of SUMPs is not a one-size-fits-all scenario. The project incorporates Bolt’s trip data, infrastructure data supplied by the cities, plus surveys and sensor telemetry data.

Key highlights from the initial published results include:

• There is a difference in how local residents and tourist visitors ride. In Hannover, most users are local and younger, travelling shorter trips of 1 to 1.5 km, which last around six minutes. In contrast, 54% of e-bike trips in Seville are made by visitors; these trips are slower and follow historic and scenic routes, while those made by locals are more direct. This demonstrates the need to balance leisure-focused routes with everyday mobility needs.
• Policy can be effective. During the study period, Hannover introduced new designated city-centre parking zones, which were found to produce a high compliance level and a reduction in ultra-short trips.
• Differing gender behaviour was observed in Hannover, supporting what has been observed in other research – that women tend to make more complex, multi-stop journeys tied to work, childcare and household responsibilities. The pattern in Hannover is that women tend to have daytime trips which are clustered more closely around rail and tram stations than men, highlighting micromobility’s role in first- and last-mile connectivity.

Transport and Mobility Planning Professor Eva Heinen of ETH Zurich spoke about the parking policy introduced in Hannover, highlighting that the change provides encouraging early evidence that targeted parking regulation can address public concerns while still enabling a viable service to be offered. “Some findings show that these policies have had the intended effects on cities, and not unbeneficial consequences for the operators.”

She also commented on the contrasting behaviour of locals and visitors observed in Seville. “The large number of tourists making micromobility trips is not necessarily surprising but it is interesting. It provides an opportunity to investigate the differences in behaviour between locals and tourists. Many cities don’t have a strong tourist/local distinction like Seville does, and others do but they don’t know anything about it.”