If you’re a particular age, then you might have memories of riding a new energy scooter. Those flimsy, two-wheeled scooters that gave you freedom on the sidewalk in front of your house before your acquisition of a bike opened up the whole neighborhood.
Until recently, that image of a scooter as a nothing more than a child’s toy was the one most people carried.
Now, several companies, such as Bird, LimeBike, and Spin, are out to change that perception. They are banking big on the idea that the small, compact e-scooter is a viable personal transportation device.
But is it?
Let’s take a look at where e-scooters are at today, from their fundamental appeal to how they work to their practicality beyond ordinary weekend fun.
Although manual and electric kick- or push-start scooters have both been around for some time, the popularity of the latter has risen steadily over the past two decades.
Perhaps the central development in the design and marketing of today’s e-scooters is children are no longer the primary audience.
Make no mistake, the targets are still young. They just happen to have a different set of priorities.
College students on campus.
Young professionals who live and work in urban environments.
People looking for alternative means of transportation in those same cities.
Each of these groups offer a market segment that tends to eschew the norms and traditions of the past. Zipping around town on a low-speed, zero-emission scooter certainly caters to those demanding alternatives.
With a unifying factor that everyone over a certain age will probably look a little goofy riding one, it’s easy to see the appeal. It also doesn’t hurt that electric scooters come across as simple and easily accessible devices that are even easier to operate.
E-scooters, much like their non-powered siblings are about as straightforward as it gets when it comes to personal transportation devices.