There should be no question that something profound is happening in major Western cities, if not in other parts of the world as well. The introduction of dockless bikes and scooters is forcing people to reconsider the current configuration of our streets which heavily favors automobiles over pedestrians and cyclists. Is that finally about the change?
Bird and
Lime, two of the companies who have led the charge on the scooter explosion in North America, recently celebrated a year of operation, are in over 100 cities each, and have
both surpassed 10 million rides as they set their sights on global expansion. However, there are plenty of questions and differing opinions on what they mean for the future.
John Greenfield points out, in Streetsblog, how
social democracies are better places to ride a bike because they take a “pragmatic and humanistic view of transportation,” which provides some context when considering
Yuval Karmi’s argument that this revolution in urban transportation
could get really messy “with metal bodies of bicycles and batteries polluting every street corner,” reflecting the disruption that happened when cars transformed urban space a century ago. Did Denmark and the Netherlands have such a “mess” as it changed its infrastructure?
Karmi says that “20 years is the time it took the car to change the urban perception. It took cities 50 more years to adjust to them and give in completely.” It will take time to shift away from automotive dominance, but only as long as we want it to.
