Skip to main content

Voting on 3 November? Get on a scooter

Roll to the Polls campaign encourages participation in US presidential election
By Ben Spencer October 9, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Bird is among micromobility firms to join voting campaign (© Arne Beruldsen | Dreamstime.com)

The North American Bikeshare Association (Nabsa) is launching Roll to the Polls, an industry-wide campaign offering free or reduced-cost transportation to voters on the US election day.

Shared micromobility operators such as Bird, Movatic and PikeRide Colorado Springs will make bikes, scooters and ride-share services available to voters on 3 November. 

Nabsa claims many people who want to vote lack access to reliable transportation, pointing to a study by Pew Research Center in which 3% of Americans cited transportation problems as a barrier to voting in 2016.

According to Nabsa, 3% is representative of 4.6 million registered voters in 2020.

Sam Herr, executive director at Nabsa, says: "Not only does shared micromobility provide riders with the freedom of fun, sustainable transportation but it also plays a vital role in eliminating the transportation barrier that exists for millions of voters."

Nabsa has been encouraging alternative methods of voting in the wake of the coronavirus - such as absentee ballots - but insists many US states do not accept the pandemic as a reason for mail-in ballots. 

Roll to the Polls helps voters plan how to get to the polls in advance and find socially distant modes of transportation, the association adds. 

Other micromobility operators involved in the campaign include Chattanooga Bicycle Transit System, MoGo Detroit, Ride Report and Shift Transit.
 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Speed reduction measures - carrot or stick?
    January 23, 2012
    In Sweden, marketing company DDB Stockholm employed a mock speed camera as part of a promotional campaign for automotive manufacturer Volkswagen. The result was worldwide online interest and promotion of the debate over excessive speed to the national level. A developing trend in traffic management policy is to look at how to induce road users to modify their behaviour by incentivising change rather than forcing it through the application of penalties. There have been several studies conducted into this; an
  • Conscience versus convenience
    June 8, 2015
    David Crawford looks at new ways forward for public transport. By 2025, nearly 60% of the world’s population will be living in towns and cities, increasing their extent and density, and the journeys that people make within and between them. In response, the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) wants to see public transport’s global modal share doubling (PTx2) by the same date. “Success in 2025,” a spokesperson told ITS International, “will save 170 million tonnes of oil equivalent and 550
  • Bird to deploy electric scooter delivery service
    October 18, 2018
    Customers of micro-mobility firm Bird will be able to have electric scooters sent to their homes and businesses by 8:00am under new plans announced by the company. The Bird Delivery service is not yet operational – pricing and the cities chosen to pilot the service will be announced “in due course”. Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO, says the programme was created to address frustrations voiced by riders about not having consistent and reliable access to scooters. More information on the servic
  • Sign up for 24th ITS World Congress Montréal
    October 12, 2016
    The Future is Here Now: Integrated Mobility Driving Smart Cities - Regina Hopper, President and CEO of ITS America raises the curtain on the Montréal ITS World Congress 2017. By 2020, the Smart Cities market will be valued at more than $1.5 trillion USD. By 2025, it is expected that 58% of the world’s population—roughly 4.6 billion people—will live in urban areas. And by 2050, experts predict the world’s urban population will double. As the battle to maintain and create new infrastructure systems continu