Micromobility the French Way

Bon jour! In a happy accident, I find myself in Paris for 24 hours after missing my connecting flight to London. This is my first time in the City of Love since my backpacking trip post-high school graduation. At 17, I found Paris expensive and challenging to navigate. My friends and I opted to head to the beaches in Cannes. But years later, with some disposable income and a more seasoned understanding of major metro systems, I am seeing the Parisian way of life with rose-colored glasses. 

When in Paris, you can’t help but notice the sheer quantity of people moving about by bike, scooter, and electric unicycle. In every level of fashionable apparel, all ages are hopping on one or two wheels and zipping through traffic (or, more conveniently, on clearly marked bike paths separate from cars) and heading out to work, school, or a three-hour dinner with friends. 

  
 

New York, New York
There’s a vast market for rent-per-ride or subscription model micromobility. In New York, for example, roughly 773,000 New Yorkers ride a bike regularly, and an estimated 530,000 cycling trips are made each day in New York City. When the pandemic made subway rides more menacing than they appear in Batman’s Gotham, micromobility rides shot upwards. Riders love the convenience and change of scenery, but there are concerns. One concern is the risk of death, as 3 pedestrians and 17 e-mobility riders died in 2021. The other has to do with the littering of bikes and scooters around city streets.

So who are the micromobility startups to watch (or ride)? Unagi is a high-end electric scooter company that has seen a 10x sales increase in NYC. Lime is a U.S.-based company that’s equally ubiquitous on Parisian and New York streets. The company partnered with Uber to increase ridership directly through the Uber app. Tier, Dott, and Bird are the Berlin, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles-based companies, respectively, partnering with cities across the U.S. and Europe.

For more on micromobility startups, search recent fundings using the keyword “micro-mobility.”