People think of electric scooters, or e-scooters, as environmentally friendly ways to get around town. Study from North Carolina State University finds it’s not that simple: shared e-scooters may be greener than most cars, but they can be less green than several other options. “So if you’re substituting car rides, it looks great. But the challenge comes up in that half the time you’re substituting walking or biking,” Jeremiah Johnson, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State said . Both walking and biking are rated substantially greener than a ride on a scooter. Companies use cars and trucks to redistribute the bicycles in their service area, which can sometimes make them less environmentally friendly. They are picked up, because they had to be removed from the city streets. And so there’s unnecessary driving to pick up a fully charged scooter, to bring it to a charging station, which it doesn’t need and then redistribute it the next day,” said Johnson. 🛴🚲
