Scoot over for micromobility! | Round Table China

Discussion keeps the world's turning.

This is Round Table. Scooters, bikes, cars, and subways are urban travel staples, but e-scooters are facing bands in some cities.

Why the backlash against these eco-friendly rides?

And we're sharing the happiness that lit up our week in our special segment.

Happy Flays It Is! Hello everybody!

Welcome to Round Table, coming to you from Beijing.

I'm He Young. I'm joined by Lee Ye and Steve Hatherley in the studio.

Together, let's explore the highs and lows of micro-mobility.

Micro-mobility, including bicycles, electric bikes, and scooters, is essential for bridging the last mile gap in urban travel.

e-scooters, those stand-up scooters powered by an electric motor, often available for short-term hire, come in handy for city travel.

But in Melbourne, Australia, e-scooters are creating more hassle than help, and the city has rolled out a ban on these green rides.

First of all, let's get the definitions right.

What is micro-mobility, and how does it matter for an average commuter like me just going about my daily business in the city?

Sure, I think you've already touched the palm of few, I mean, micro-mobility vehicles, electric bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, and according to my research, currently there is actually no international recognized universal definition about a term, but overall, I think micro-mobility refers to small, lightweight vehicles driven directly by users, and especially

in urban environment. And according to Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, which is a nonprofit organization focusing on public transport, they are typically devices operating at speeds below 25 kilometers per hour, and usually they are ideal transportation tools for trips up to 10 kilometers.

And some major benefits, I mean, why people are embracing these vehicles, especially in urban settings, of course, first reason is that they don't want to walk.

That's amazing. That's amazing.

That can be one reason for people like comparing to walking and other greener transportation ways, but I think especially we usually compare this micro-mobility vehicles with cars.

So one reason is that these vehicles can be more affordable, because one e-bike here in Beijing, I think typically cost about 1,000 to 3,000 yuan, while a private car could cost you 100 times more.

A lot more. Yes, exactly.

Affordable, yes. Affordable is one of the big things, but I just think the ease and comfort of getting around your community is a big reason why people use these as well.

You know, I see a lot of people here in our community, not what we're going to talk about, not using e-scooters, but these little electric motorcycles.

There's a person driving, and there's a person on the back.

And they're everywhere in our community here in Beijing, and people use them for many reasons.

One that I see a lot is to go to the grocery store, right?

The grocery store will be two or three or four blocks away.

They'll hop on the scooter.

They'll go. The scooter will often have a basket.

If not, they'll be carrying a backpack.

And it's a great way to get your groceries and then zip back home in a lot less time with a lot less effort.

And also, I've seen a lot of parents.

Even if they have a car in Beijing, they would rather cycle or be on one of these electric scooters, which you can sit down and carry your child in the back to send them to school, because often schools in Beijing are hidden, well, some of the older schools are tucked away in who-tones, or these narrow alleyways, and then sometimes cars can't get through.

So it just makes a lot of sense to go by these smaller micro mobility vehicles, so to speak.

And here, well, not here, actually over there in Melbourne, it seems like they're banning e-scooters, and these e-scooters are not the ones that you sit down on, but you're standing on it.

I may paint you a picture of what type of vehicle we're talking about.

There's two wheels, one in the front and one in the back, and connecting those two wheels is a thin board on which you put your feet.

Your feet don't typically go next to each other.

They can, but oftentimes one will go in the front and one will go behind it.

They're quite thin if you look at them from top down or from back to front, and that's the type of vehicle we're talking about here.

In the handlebars, there's a little lever that you press, and that's what initiates the motor, or the engine, if you will, and off off you go.

So that's what we're talking about.

Now what happened in Melbourne, Australia, which is in the state of Victoria.

Victoria is going to come up a little bit later, so now we know where that is.

They signed a contract with these e-scooter companies a couple of years ago back in 2022, and they thought, let's do a trial run in the city, in the CBD area, the central business district, the urban area, the downtown area.

And now they've come to the point where they're going to break the contract six months early with these scooter companies because the Australian city of Melbourne has said it poses unacceptable safety risks.

These e-scooters are simply too dangerous to be had in the downtown area of Melbourne.

And it's not just Melbourne, Paris, Montreal, Rome, Toronto, Utrecht.

Utrecht is in the Netherlands, if you didn't know.

They are either winding back or banning the rollout of e-scooter networks as well.

So why is it that they're banning the e-scooters?

Is it that they want to improve their micromobility issue, or are these e-scooters really a big trouble for locals?

There's a lot of trouble, and the Melbourne Lord Mayor, his name is Nicholas Rees, he said that we talked to shop traders in the city, we talked to residents, we talked to the head of the emergency department at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and they all told us that the city sidewalks have not been safe because of these e-scooters, and that's what prompted this decision.

There's been a lot of accidents, there's been deaths as well.

Not everyone is on the same side, some people want to cancel these and other people don't, and part of me, one of those people is Victoria and Premier, her name is just into Allen.

And she said, I really hope the city of Melbourne can have a change of heart on this decision.

There's a role for e-scooters in our public transport network, particularly for, as you mentioned in the opening, the last mile journey, forgetting cars off of local roads.

So what they wanted to do, what the idea was, was to have these e-scooters come in and help out traffic conditions, right, in the downtown area, but they found it to be a little bit too dangerous.

I think similar city agencies here in China, actually e-scooters or scooters, they are not really recognized as official transportation tool here in China.

I mean, according to my research, let me give you some basic background information.

According to China's law on road traffic safety, the transportation tools that glide don't own right of way, meaning that they are not really allowed to be raided, either in bicycle lanes or vehicle lanes.

So it can only be used in a closed residential area or where we're in or of venues.

So here in Beijing, it's so well designed on the streets.

You have the area for the cars, but then you have almost like a smaller side street, which in that street runs parallel to the car street.

And you see bicycles being ridden there, these little electric vehicles being ridden there.

But what you're saying is the type of scooter that we're talking about here, that's not even allowed to go there.

Exactly. So because electric scooters, they are classified as a gliding tool instead of transportation tools, they're not really allowed to be raided on those streets or roads you mentioned.

And if you somehow unfortunately be in court, you might be faced with certain fines.

And now here in China, I think each city has different, I mean, regulation about how much amount of fine we will just be imposed to you.

And we know that major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, these are top tier cities here in China.

They're all banning e-scoters and they have very strict regulation on this transportation tool.

But meantime, there is also ongoing discussion about whether we should really open the policy a little bit because just the last year, we do have a national standard about the manufacturing about this e-scoter vehicle.

So some people are having this debate saying that maybe we should be more taught.

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[The Micro-Mobility Dilemma: Balancing Urban Convenience and Safety]-[Scoot over for micromobility!]

📋 Summary

The Micro-Mobility Dilemma: Balancing Urban Convenience and Safety

Introduction to the Micro-Mobility Landscape

The Appeal: Affordability and Convenience

The Melbourne Crackdown: Safety Concerns

The Regulatory Conflict in China

Conclusion: The Path Forward

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript