Bird: e-scooters will ‘replace short car trips in London’

More than half of car trips in the city of London are less than three miles with an average occupancy of just over one person, says Bird. 
By Ben Spencer February 17, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Bird reckons its e-scooters can reduce a 25-minute car journey in London to around 10 minutes (Source: © Tobias Arhelger | Dreamstime.com)

Speaking at Move2020, Caroline Hazlehurst, senior director of EMEA operations, says: “The journey takes much longer than it should with the average time for a trip around 25 minutes. Alternatives like electric scooters could do that same distance in roughly 10 minutes or less.”

“If you give people a true alternative to the car they will use it, and adoption has been unprecedented,” she added. 

Hazlehurst said the company is aiming to take cars off the road, reduce congestion and emissions while also making cities more liveable. 

“In the US, over a thousand million metric tonnes of CO2 is produced from car travel and we want to replace as many of those trips as possible with emissions-free transportation,” she continued. “If we were to do that by 10%, that would be the same as taking about 28 coal-fired power plants offline for a year.”

Hazlehurst claimed the firm’s Bird 2 scooter has a 60% longer battery-life than the previous generation.

“The vehicle self-reports damage through sensors which flag potential issues, a dual anti-tipping kick stand to help keep the vehicle upright and puncture-proof tyres which self-seal,” she added. 

 

Mass Transit & MaaS

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Adaptive cruise control would suppress traffic instability
    March 20, 2014
    Professor Berthold Horn of Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes a modified adaptive cruise control could mitigate phantom traffic jamsthat occur for no apparent reason. The phenomenon of the phantom traffic jam is all too common: they appear for no apparent reason and, having caused frustrating delays for all travelers, evaporate for an equally mystical reason. Phantom traffic jams usually occur on busy highways and often take the form of repeatedly stopping and then accelerating up to near the
    Read More
  • ‘Risky tailgating and speeding rife on UK motorways’
    May 22, 2014
    Six in ten UK drivers own up to risky tailgating (57 per cent) and a similar proportion break the limit by 10mph or more (60 per cent) on motorways and 70mph dual carriageways, with men by far the worst offenders, a survey by Brake and insurance company Direct Line reveals. Almost all drivers say they worry about other drivers tailgating on motorways: 95 per cent are at least occasionally concerned about vehicles too close behind them; more than four in ten (44 per cent) are concerned every, or most, tim
    Read More
  • Developing new detection and monitoring technologies
    November 21, 2012
    Established detection and monitoring technologies continue to evolve, but is it time to challenge their supremacy and take a serious look at less conventional ITS? Andy Graham considers the options with Jason Barnes. For ITS system providers, the most potentially lucrative markets over the next few years are going to be the BRIC (Brazil Russia India and China) group of countries, all of which are building many miles of new roads, applying tolling to existing ones (8,000km in China alone) and implementing w
    Read More
  • Leading Finland’s transport revolution
    July 18, 2017
    Anne Berner, Finland’s minister of transport and communications, does not fit the normal political mould. She is not a career politician but a business executive who became a member of parliament in 2015 and has said from the outset that she will only serve one term. Without concerns about being re-elected and a clear view of the future of transport, Berner can concentrate on what needs to be done - tackling some of the more contentious and intransigent subjects. Her name is best known for two major initiat
    Read More

Highlighted Content