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

  • VeoRide to launch e-scooter with swappable battery in US
    May 9, 2019
    VeoRide is to launch an electric scooter with a swappable battery in the US – which it says sets the product apart from anything on the market. The company could not resist a dig at commercial rivals, saying that its R&D team designed vehicles “from the ground up for commercial/shared use, rather than sourcing the same Ninebot or Segway scooters that Lime, Bird and others use”. VeoRide claims that its scooter will last four to eight times longer than others – and suggests that it will also improve safet
  • Five micromobility operators + 10 recommendations = regulated cities
    March 27, 2023
    At least, that's what Dott, Lime, Superpedestrian, Tier and Voi think in new guidance
  • The real case for driverless mobility
    May 13, 2024
    What will automated driving really be good for? Bern Grush of Urban Robotics Foundation offers his thoughts on the big issues around its implementation - and suggests a newly-published book might point the way forward
  • Detroit introduces unified bus payment system
    August 15, 2019
    Detroit authorities have launched a ticketing scheme to encourage bus ridership – a new venture which dovetails with existing initiatives to improve mobility, Ben Spencer reports The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDoT) has partnered with the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) to launch a unified payment system – called Dart - for the US region’s buses. Detroit’s mayor Mike Duggan says: “Dart will bring our two systems closer together with seamless transfers and more f