Skip to main content

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. 

 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • European car manufacturers face world’s toughest CO2 targets
    July 12, 2012
    Following the adoption yesterday of the European Commission's proposals to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and vans, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) says it will now work with its members to conduct a full analysis of how the proposed targets should be reached as well as their feasibility, and what this means in practice for the industry as a whole.
  • Carbon finance delivers critical support to mass transit schemes
    February 2, 2012
    David Crawford investigates carbon finance in transport. World Bank carbon finance grants are delivering critical support to major mass transit deployments in emerging and developing economies. Only recently operative in the transport sector, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM, see panel) is designed to generate additional income streams and improve internal rates of return on projects funded from public- and private-sector sources.
  • Most EV charging ‘takes place at home’
    July 30, 2015
    New analysis by plug-in vehicle campaign Go Ultra Low suggests that British motorists could no longer have to rely on the conventional petrol station. More than 90 per cent of electric vehicle (EV) charging takes place at home while total charging volumes have almost tripled since 2014, according to new usage data from leading infrastructure provider Chargemaster. Coupled with bumper uptake of plug-in vehicles – more than 14,500 were registered in the first half of 2015 – the new findings point to the po
  • Road user charging potential solution to transportation problems
    December 14, 2012
    A number of new and highly significant open road tolling schemes have just been launched or are soon to ‘go live’. Systems of road user charging are flexing their muscles as the means to solve politically sensitive transportation problems, reports Jon Masters. Gothenburg, January 2013, will be the time and place for the launch of the next city congestion charging scheme in Europe. In a separate development, Los Angeles County’s tolled Metro ExpressLanes began operating in November 2012 – the latest in a ser