Micromobility vehicles such as
bicycles and scooters, have been in use since the 19th century, but in the early 20th century cars began to dominate in
modal share in cities such as
New York. Since then, the use of bicycles for utilitarian
urban transport (as opposed to recreation or sport) has been relatively low in comparison to trips made by larger vehicles outside of a few cities in
China,
the Netherlands, and
Denmark.
Origins Micromobility was originally in the form of bicycle-sharing services in
Europe. Similar programs were created in the following years in
France (1974) and the
Netherlands (1975), all located in densely populated areas of cities. However, the device had an appearance of a
hand bike more than a wheelchair since the design included hand cranks mounted at the front wheel. The invalid carriage or
Bath chair brought the technology into more common use from around 1760.
William Kent developed an early
stroller in 1733. Strollers became affordable and widespread due to new manufacturing materials in the 1930s. The
push scooter was invented by Denis Johnson in 1819 and usually constructed mainly from wood. Motorised scooters first appeared as
autopeds enjoying a brief boom in popularity in 1915. The aluminium folding scooter popularised the push scooter in the 1990s.
E-scooters first appeared in 2003. In 1882 a sports newspaper in Stockholm first reported a
kicksled as a vehicle that could be kicked forwards on ice and snow. In 1965,
Owen Maclaren designed a lightweight stroller with an aluminium frame further popularising the stroller. In the 1960s and 1970s
skateboards enjoyed popularity, displacing kick scooters which nearly disappeared completely.
Pedal The pedal-powered tricycle was invented by two Frenchmen, named Blanchard and Maguier in 1789. It predates the invention of the bicycle in Germany by
Karl von Drais in 1817 (which did not use pedals until the 1860s). Tricycles were not popular until 1876, when James Starley introduced the Coventry Lever Tricycle, a side-driven two-track, lever-driven machine, which started the tricycling craze in Great Britain. This was replaced with the
bike boom of the 1890s as a result of the popular introduction of Starley's
safety bicycle. Human-powered quadracycles were invented in 1853 and enjoyed modest popularity. This was followed by
quadricycles in 1896 which included a motor.
Recumbent bicycles were invented in 1893.
Velomobiles (essentially enclosed recumbents) were invented in 1927.
Velocars were invented by Mochet in 1932. The first mass-produced electric velomobile was the
Sinclair C5.
Rental While micromobility vehicles have long been available for users to purchase, it was the
servitization of these modes of transportation—enabling users to use the nearest micromobility vehicle without having to purchase or store it, and facilitating the flexibility of one-way trips—that led to growth in areas where it was available. The rise of the sharing economy resulted in a massive increase in access to micromobility in many cities, first with the introduction of public bikeshare systems, and then with privately funded and operated
dockless bikeshare and electric kick scooter (e-scooter) fleets. Most early bikeshare services specified locations, or docks, where vehicles needed to be picked up and left. From 2022 on, the so-called hybrid model, locking systems that can be locked both with and without a dock at the same time, and compatible
internet-of-things (IOT) platforms have been developed.
21st century in Berlin, Germany, 2019. The second generation was dockless bicycle-sharing, introduced in 2000; the third was dockless electric bicycle sharing, introduced in 2017. The fourth generation of bicycle sharing services employed a dockless model which allows users to end their trip and leave the shared micromobility device anywhere or within a
geo-fenced area. Dockless bikeshare first took off in Chinese megacities, and although it began with traditional, non-electric bicycles, it served as a template for what would be possible with electric and motorized bicycles, scooters, and other form factors. The availability of relatively inexpensive batteries, displays and GPS receivers, enabled by the smartphone supply chains, provided easily accessible components to facilitate dockless services worldwide. Outside of Chinese cities, non-electric dockless bikeshare has largely disappeared, with many companies switching from bicycles to electric kick scooters in 2019. Shared electric kick scooters are considered to have one of the most rapid adoption rates in transport, nearly 4% in one year. Comparatively, it took bikeshare eight years to reach 13% adoption, and
carshare 18 years to reach 16% in major United States cities. == Popularity and reception ==