E-scooters on the Ground: Lessons for Redesigning Urban Micro-Mobility

The worldwide deployment of rental electric scooters has generated new opportunities for urban mobility, but also intensified conflict over public space. This article reports on an ethnographic study of both rental and privately-owned e-scooters, mapping out the main problems and potentials around this new form of 'micro-mobility'. While it suffers from problems of reliability and conflict, user experience is an important part of e-scooters' appeal, an enjoyable way of 'hacking the city'. E-scooters have a hybrid character: weaving through the city, riders can switch between riding as a pedestrian, a car or a bicycle. Building on these results, we discuss how e-scooters, ridesharing services, and their apps could develop further, alongside the role for HCI in re-thinking urban transport and vehicle design.