The levels of traffic and air pollution reached in almost every city in the world are encouraging (or forcing) a mobility revolution. After all, a few figures are all you need to understand how we need to change the way we think about city travel. According to a recent report by the World Health Organisation, there are 7 million premature deaths caused by air pollution worldwide every year and 99 per cent of the global population breathes air that does not meet the quality standards deemed safe. In addition to this, every year approximately 1.3 million people die in road accidents worldwide, mainly in low- and middle-income countries. An answer to this situation is micro-mobility, defined by the US Federal Highway Administration as mobility using “any small, low-speed, human- or electric-powered transportation device”.
So, what are these transportation devices? Bicycles, e-bikes, scooters (electric and non-electric), skateboards, Segways, hoverboards and monowheels. One of the common features is clearly sustainability and low environmental impact, in terms of both atmospheric emissions and noise.
The concept behind urban micro-mobility is to promote the use of these light vehicles to improve safety and air quality in cities. Action is needed in various areas to achieve the objectives, including infrastructure with the creation of bicycle and pedestrian paths and spaces, lowering of speed limits for cars to create 30 km/h zones throughout city centres and defining specific traffic rules and codes for scooters, bicycles and similar vehicles. Incentives are also needed to purchase the vehicles, to spread micro-mobility sharing and bike-to-work projects, in addition to other useful measures to encourage city dwellers to prefer light mobility over higher-impact alternatives.
Almost every country and big city worldwide is, albeit somewhat laboriously, moving in this direction. Paris wants to become entirely cycle-friendly by 2024 with all the main services within a 15 minutes radius, moving on foot, by bicycle or, at most, by electric public transport. In Italy, about 2 million bicycles and e-bikes were sold in 2021, similar figures to those for 2020 but significantly higher than in 2019, also as the result of government incentives for the purchase of micro-mobility vehicles. Oslo has essentially eliminated cars from the centre for several years now.
Many states and cities have incorporated electric scooters and other new-generation light vehicles into the highway code. The most promising experiments integrate micro-mobility and mobility sharing with public transport, allowing scooters and bicycles to be carried on city and intercity trains and creating parking spaces for bicycles near stations. The benefits of a city based on micro-mobility are multifarious. It is less impactful on the environment and the climate crisis and it improves health (by promoting a more dynamic lifestyle with fewer accidents). It is cost-effective and upholds a better way of experiencing the city and so the benefits are also for society as a whole.
