Environmental study on micromobility: e-scooter rental companies contradict ETH Zurich

Researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered that rental e-scooters and e-bikes produce more CO in the overall balance₂ emit than the modes of transport they replace. This is different with personal electric standing scooters. This finding has met with fundamental criticism in the e-scooter rental industry.

At first glance, the operation of e-scooters and e-bikes seems climate-friendly because they do not require combustion engines. “But for her CO₂footprint, it ultimately depends on which means of transport they typically replace,” explains Daniel Reck from the Institute for Traffic Planning and Transport Systems (IVT) at ETH Zurich. His team developed the CO₂-Emissions considered over the entire life cycle of production, operation and maintenance and also the substitution patterns during use, i.e. which means of transport are replaced by micromobiles.

The traffic researchers show that shared e-scooters and e-bikes in the city of Zurich are primarily replacing more sustainable options, i.e. walking, public transport and cycling. A different picture emerges for privately owned micro-companions, because they replace car journeys much more frequently and thus emit less CO₂-Create emissions than the modes of transport they replace.

“Distorted study results”

The Shared Mobility (PSM) platform, in which various rental companies such as Lime, Tier, Bird and Voi have organized themselves, sees the ETH study as a snapshot that has no meaningfulness for the current situation of micromobility; moreover, it cannot simply be transferred to other cities. In Stuttgart, for example, it has been shown that many people use public transport more often if there are standing electric scooters at the stops.

“We consider the assessment that e-scooters should only replace routes that are otherwise covered by cars to be wrong,” says a statement from the PSM (PDF). No means of transport will be able to completely replace the car on its own, not even public transport. Micromobility works in chains of routes in which different means of transport are connected with each other, so that longer distances can be covered in combination and a car becomes superfluous.

image 1 from 64

On top of that, the CO used in the ETH study₂-Values ​​outdated. With replaceable batteries, green electricity, decentralized charging infrastructure and electrically operated service vehicles, the CO₂-Emissions have been reduced by 70 percent since June 2019. The ETH’s substitution model assumes that public transport is always running, regardless of whether users choose public transport or other means of transport. This also distorts the study results.

(app)