Shared E-Scooter User Characteristics and Usage Patterns across Four U.S. Cities

Abstract

The rapid growth of shared e-scooters around the world creates an interest and a need to understand who uses shared e-scooters, trip patterns, and modal shift impacts. To shed light on these questions, this study conducted an online survey (N = 1498) to collect information on shared e-scooter use in four U.S. cities: Birmingham, AL, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, CA, and Miami, FL. The paper provides a comprehensive view of shared e-scooter use in different cities and reveals the similarities and differences in e-scooter users’ socioeconomic characteristics. Furthermore, the results of a binary logistic model show the impact of socioeconomic and travel modal choice factors on predicting shared e-scooter usage. The findings suggest that male, younger, and more affluent users who live in smaller households owning fewer vehicles are more likely to use shared e-scooter services. The relationships between income level, race/ethnicity, or e-scooter ownership and the usage of shared e-scooters are not statistically significant. The McFadden’s R² of the binary logistic regression model indicates an excellent fit. The results also show that compared with non-users, shared e-scooter users tend to assess travel cost as more important and travel safety as less important in their mode choice. The findings from this work can help city planners, policymakers, and other micromobility stakeholders in their efforts to promote the adoption of shared e-scooters and improve on deployment practices of shared e-scooters at their locations.