Skip to main content

Birmingham embraces e-scooter 'impact'

Rides in UK city replace 680,000 'unnecessary' car journeys, micromobility company insists
By Adam Hill October 18, 2022 Read time: 2 mins
Easy rider: commutes by e-scooter have risen (image: Voi)

Voi says there were 75,000 commuter journeys on its e-scooters in Birmingham, UK - which plans to become a carbon-neutral city by the end of the decade - last month.

Nearly 17,000 rides took place in the morning between 7-9 am and around 58,000 rides between 4-7 pm.

The company says this means a third of riders in Birmingham use Voi for commuting back and forth to work, and its ridership has risen to nearly 1.8 million in the city since the scheme began in September 2020.

Residential communities across Birmingham - such as Castle Bromwich, Kings Heath, Harborne and Perry Barr - are also embracing micromobility, it says, following the city-wide expansion ahead of the recent Commonwealth Games in the city.

With four in 10 riders using a Voi e-scooter rather than a car, this means more than 680,000 'unnecessary journeys' are being replaced, the firm suggests.

“The number of people using Voi for their daily commute shows the remarkable impact e-scooters are having on Birmingham," says Sam Pooke, senior policy manager at Voi UK&I.

"The expansion in the summer ahead of the Commonwealth Games has unleashed pent-up demand for an alternative to using the car."

But Pooke says this means reliability is key: "Creating change in our town and cities means we must deliver a service that mimics the convenience of using a car - needing to be both flexible and accessible, but greener, so people from all walks of life don't give a second thought to using an e-scooter as part of their daily lives.”
 
Voi has discounts available for students, NHS staff, emergency service workers, the armed forces, veterans and also for those on a low income.

Related Content

  • Public transport now on Google maps
    May 15, 2014
    Millions of people rely on public transit to get around and since 2007 Google has worked to include public transit routes and schedules in Google Maps. In its latest blog, Google says it makes it even easier to get around on public transport with the addition of public transport information for Vancouver, Chicago and every 2016 Olympic Games host city in Brazil. David Tattersall, Google’s product manager, Public Transit says in his blog: “Our transit data spans six continents, 64 countries and more th
  • LA launches own ‘Green New Deal’
    August 15, 2019
    Los Angeles, once a temple to the automobile, has followed the Democrats in launching its own Green New Deal – and the city has made big pledges on urban mobility investment The Democratic Party has started something. The Green New Deal, one of whose most high-profile supporters is new congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, intends to persuade the public that swift action is necessary to combat climate change. Now the city of Los Angeles has followed suit, releasing what it calls ‘LA’s Green New Deal’.
  • Beam lights up first Sydney suburban e-scooter trial
    January 25, 2024
    Geofencing controls where scooters are ridden and how fast they can travel in Kogarah
  • Spin pledges £100,000 to mobility research
    December 3, 2020
    Initial focus is on safety and will include data from Vivacity Labs' AI and IoT sensors