E-Scooter docking stations
Research that responds to the problem of providing re-charge docks for e-scooters when left outside stations and transportation hubs.
Investigators
- Associate Professor Selby Coxon Monash Art, Design and Architecture
- Mr Andres Ferrandon Monash University
Partner organisation
- Bird micro mobility
Undertaken within
Amongst the popular adoption of electric battery powered disruptive innovations in the micro-mobility space is the growing presence of the e-scooter. The global adoption rate for e-scooters has been higher in the first five years of availability, 3.6% of the population over 18 years of age, compared to the car sharing equivalent take-up of only 2%. In Paris e-scooter rides replaced 1.2 million motor vehicle trips and kept more than 330 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere. While this is a welcome development in encouraging a transition from the car in congested cities, the appearance of apparently abandoned share e-scooters occupying the pavement, sometimes tipped on to their side, presents an impediment to pedestrians, especially the visually impaired. One of the extolled virtues of shared e-scooters is the apparent freedom to be left anywhere a patron has done with riding them. As the patronage of shared e-scooters grows it is becoming evident that the management or user expected protocols for parking might be advantageous for both operators and patrons before the current looser and un-restricted model undermines the good intent of this form of micro-mobility and fuels unnecessary public opposition with negative experiences and interruptions to pedestrian rights of way. While share bikes have also migrated to a more frequently dock less business model, the more orderly securing of bicycles, especially privately-owned bicycles, is something both pedestrians and cyclists have become accustomed to.
This research explored infrastructure interventions to encourage positive user behaviours when completing e-scooter journeys. Using a design methodology and in collaboration with an e-scooter operator, the Mobility Design Lab has looked to develop a conceptual solution that aspires to mitigate the risk of e-scooters becoming pavement detritus and create additional benefits such as simpler e-scooter finding and re-charging hubs to present a positive and high efficacy form of micro-mobility.
