Scooter Struggles
The demise of the electric scooter scene in Ann Arbor
—By Alex Wang
As I walked back home from the Ugli with some of my buddies, we noticed a row of perfectly lined-up Spin scooters. Without hesitation, one of them sprinted toward the scooters, knocking them over, which caused a domino effect. We stood there in an uneasy silence, unsure of what had just transpired. “Just wait for it,” the culprit exclaimed. Suddenly a chorus of beeps erupted from the fallen e-scooters. Laughter quickly ensued. Was this an impulsive act? No. For him, this was tradition: knocking over Spin scooters whenever he could just to walk away and relish in the cacophony of cries for help in the background.
Recently, I’ve paid more attention to the e-scooter landscape here in Ann Arbor and have realized that it is a graveyard. Toppled scooters litter the area with very few of them ever in use. In fact, there are forums dedicated to the “death” of e-scooters. I recently stumbled across Bird Graveyard, an Instagram account that highlights the violent demise of these vehicles. The community against e-scooters is much stronger than I expected, and they may have just gained another follower. Last October, I personally witnessed someone on a Spin Scooter get mowed down by a Ford Escape and thrown about ten feet down East Liberty. Riders are incredibly susceptible to accidents and are often the perpetrators of them, especially considering their propensity to disregard safety guidelines and traffic laws. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, injuries related to e-scooters continue to increase, rising 22% from 2021 to 2022. One U-M junior, Karlyle Yarema, states, “I’m somewhat concerned about inconsiderate riders hitting me because some people go way too fast on the sidewalk.” While Spin scooters were initially welcomed as a green alternative to traditional transportation methods, various factors such as injury profile, economic context, cultural shifts, and infrastructural challenges have dampened their appeal in Ann Arbor.
Begging to be hit
Across the United States, revenue from e-scooters has soared from $176 million to $768 million, a 336% increase since 2018, and is projected to increase another 40% by 2028. At the same time, they can be incredibly dangerous as they reach speeds over 30 miles per hour. Micro mobility devices have resulted in 360,800 emergency department visits between 2017 and 2022. Despite being able to reach speeds that rival that of a moped or bicycle, e-scooter riders typically don’t wear helmets or other protective clothing, increasing their risk of injury or death. Furthermore, the absence of special riding zones compromises the safety of these e-scooter riders and pedestrians. Studies have shown that the injury profiles of individuals riding e-scooters are more traumatic than those riding motorbikes.
Despite the rosy revenue forecasts painted by the e-scooter industry, the future of the industry is looking grim. Spin Scooter’s parent company, Bird Global Inc., declared bankruptcy last December. Once valued at $2.5 billion by investors, it now showcases a meager $751,000 market cap as of April 2024, a 99.97% decrease over five years. Ann Arbor serves as the epicenter in Michigan of sustainable mobility solutions, but the adoption of e-scooters as a viable solution to greenhouse gas emissions seems to be lacking.
Why are they here?
In their initial start-up phase, e-scooters were dumped all around the country, especially in big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. There was no regulation and the public just had to deal with the inconvenience. In 2018, Ann Arbor faced the same dilemma. “One day they just dropped all their Bird scooters in Ann Arbor. There was no request for collaboration, no nothing,” said Stephen Dolen, Executive Director of Transportation and Parking Operations at U-M. Back then, Bird and Spin were separate entities. Spin was later acquired by Ford, and because the University has a history with Ford, according to Dolen, the University graciously accepted the Spin scooters. Dolen found Spin to be much more cooperative than Bird. They worked in tandem with the city, figuring out what they thought was the “right number of scooters, and how to make it more safe.” But that was all before Bird acquired Spin. Currently, the University makes $1 per Spin scooter trip, and as long as they continue to pay the University, Dolen claims that Spin scooters likely aren’t going anywhere. But is it all worth it?
Low ridership
Bird hopes to “make cities more livable by reducing car usage, lowering carbon emissions, and improving the safety of all road users.” Who’s to blame for the slow death of Bird? On the macro level, inflation and rising interest rates have crushed many in the electric vehicle space as high interest rates have made it more expensive for companies like Bird to raise capital. Inflation increases their costs of operations, making it more expensive for them to both maintain and expand their fleet of scooters. They then try to pass on the increased costs of operations to consumers, which makes rides more expensive. Price-sensitive students have been largely unwilling to adapt to this price increase. “Bird scooters were fun to use when they first came out, but everywhere in Ann Arbor is walking distance, so I’d rather just save money and walk,” says U-M junior Deven Parikh. For many students, it seems the benefits do not outweigh the costs, which is exacerbated by lackluster demand. A BCG study found that in cities with populations of less than 100,000, mass adoption of e-scooters is very uncertain. Ann Arbor houses a population of around 120,000, a figure very close to this threshold.
Furthermore, those who consistently rely on quick, short-distance transportation may just opt for their own e-scooters. The majority of Spin riders in Ann Arbor seem to be student-athletes, with their trademark maize and blue backpacks draped across their backs. They are the ones who, on average, need to commute the farthest, often traversing from the Ross Athletic Campus to Central Campus on a daily basis. Although they make up most of the Spin scooter customer base, student-athletes don’t even seem to be using the Spin scooters that often. Zach Walsh, equipment manager for the U-M football team, states, “A lot of the guys actually use mopeds, but if they’re not using mopeds, they’re mostly using their own e-scooters, not the Spins.” The line often becomes blurred between what is considered a vehicle and what is not. Mopeds have an actual combustion engine and are licensed for road use. Spin scooters are not; however many still ride on the road, disrupting the flow of traffic and increasing injury risk for all road users. For this reason, many student-athletes opt for mopeds.
Different strategies and solutions
Although Spin scooters may marginally help the University help reach carbon zero goals by 2050, they don’t do it in the most efficient ways. Antonio Cooper, journalist at Current Magazine, has touched on this topic briefly. He says, “There are too many options in Ann Arbor for Bird to survive.” The electric vehicle space in Ann Arbor is incredibly fragmented with many new competitors emerging. He cites May Mobility as one of Bird’s top competitors. May Mobility is a free, self-driving ride-share service for public use. They average around 1,000 riders per month, and their user base is growing. Furthermore, their fleet contributes to the University’s zero carbon emissions goal. While their vehicles aren’t directly sustainable, they indirectly reduce emissions by optimizing routes and avoiding unnecessary idling.
On top of these new additions, Bird seems to be pulling the rug out from under themselves. Spin bikes have recently been introduced to the EV landscape in Ann Arbor. Cooper asserts, “Adding e-bikes to their fleet of unused Spin scooters is just adding an excess supply of underutilized equipment…. Ann Arbor might just ditch Bird and pivot to something else.” I have never seen anyone use the neon orange Spin bikes and Cooper echoed the same sentiment. Bird has issued a small-scale rollout with these bikes, testing the waters with a fleet of 100 bikes around spring last year. “If you’re already a failing system that has been sold multiple times, expanding your lines of service is the last thing you should be doing,” says Cooper.
Ann Arbor’s infrastructure harbors an unwelcome environment for e-scooters. A town ridden with a population of young adults makes imposing hundreds of unsurveyed e-scooters on us a recipe for disaster. One solution to this is focusing on building more protected bike lanes and designated e-scooter zones. Back in 2019, Ann Arbor began building two-way protected bike lanes and has since installed many more bike lanes throughout downtown. This aligns with their “Vision Zero” goal to eliminate all transportation-related injuries and deaths by 2025.
While the bike lanes were designed primarily for bikers, they inadvertently benefited Spin scooter riders as well. However, the rapid expansion of bike lanes does not ensure they are being installed properly. Drivers turning left across bike lanes are often vulnerable to blind spots and often don’t even see the bikers coming up on their left-hand side. While data from the DDA indicates that two-way bike lanes are reducing crashes, there is still much work to be done.
Alignment with U-M sustainability goals
Michigan’s sustainability goals are not going to be met through Spin scooters. Instead, the University should direct its efforts elsewhere. Recently, the University rolled out four new electric buses as a part of contributing to the University’s sustainability efforts. They emit 74% less greenhouse gas emissions than a standard bus, and they have plans to add 20 more EV charging stations next summer, bringing the total to 32. This is a step in the right direction. Unlike Spin scooters, which are a product of capitalism, students would likely feel much more remorse vandalizing a vehicle used for public transportation.
One of the reasons for the massive resentment of Spin scooters is that people feel that tech companies are infringing upon their rights to use public space, “I’ve always been opposed to corporate greed,” exclaims U-M alum Cam Turner. “The fact that they (Bird) simply allow riders to dump the e-scooters wherever they want just emphasizes their greed for profits,” Turner suggested that Bird is imposing a social cost onto the public by exploiting public space and resources. However, that is not the case with other modes of green transportation.
The University plans to eliminate all campus emissions by 2040. Yet, in a walkable city such as Ann Arbor, Spin scooters are not helping the cause. They’re hoping to fill a void in the short-distance travel sector that does not need to be filled. Although Spin scooters have zero emissions, there is a trade-off in their manufacturing. The production of their batteries creates high CO2 emissions, and while they theoretically would make it back in the form of its clean energy use, their lifespan is only three to five years on average. The focus should be placed much more on long-distance transportation and the unnecessary use of fossil fuel-powered cars for short distances, especially since emissions are not coming from short-distance transportation as U-M students usually opt to just walk. Spin scooters aren’t filling a niche in the green energy transportation landscape; they’re causing a pile-up.
And lastly, the Executive Director of Transportation and Parking Operations here at U-M himself doesn’t even believe that Spin scooters are helping the University achieve its sustainability goals. “We’ve essentially enabled laziness,” Dolen says. “From the data I’ve seen around campus, most scooter trips are less than a mile…. What you’ve done is you’ve replaced walking with electric vehicles!”
As I split off from my friends and headed home, the image of the overturned Spin scooters was still etched in my mind. I’ve always had a particular disdain for these nuisances. They litter the streets of downtown Nashville, my hometown, and I’ve almost hit a few riders who thought they could dart across traffic. However, I was unaware this sentiment was so prevalent in Ann Arbor. The beeps of the fallen scooters echoed through my head. On that walk home, I imagined knocking over every scooter in my way, hoping the industry would just spin out.
Feature Photo: Spin Scooter on the Ground by Alex Wang