Anis Sellaouti, Oytun Arslan, Silja Hoffmann, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany

Abstract Since mid-June 2019, electric scooters have been that m
 
  
 
 fest) was
permitted on German roads. Many companies offer these in the held in Munich [9]. The 6.3 million visitors from around the
form of sharing vehicles in Germany's major cities. These world increased the need of transport in Munich dramatically
justify their existence through the zero-emission alternative to and most of the studies showed that e-scooters are often used
cars. How these vehicles are accepted, how they are used and for tourism [10, 11, 12]. Besides that, if we consider the
whether they actually contribute to the transformation of the Gartner hype cycle the period, where the studies were done,
German traffic is being analysed in this paper. could coincide with the peak of the hype curve [13].
An online survey in Munich shows that e-scooters mainly
replace walking and public transport and despite their large For these various reasons, a survey was conducted to
presence in the city landscape they are not used often. It appears analyse the use or non-use of e-scooters, their integration into
that e-scooters are perceived as a leisure/fun object and less safe the city of Munich and their potential as an additional mobility
than bikes. The introduction of parking spaces with integrated system    .
charging facilities could save the bad reputation of electric
scooters as deduced in the study. This reputation covers the II. METHODOLOGY
environment, safety and the cityscape. In this study is also
shown how the pricing model could be traced back to the An anonymous online survey was used to analyse the
absence of first mile last mile (FMLM) using. problem. A questionnaire was created using the tool SoSci
Survey [16] and its URL-link was forwarded through social
media to a random sample of Munich residents. Filter
I. INTRODUCTION questions were used to customize the questionnaire.
According to German Federal Ministry of Transport and The survey took place in January and February 2020 and
Digital Infrastructure, e-scooters should be a last mile solution reached 277 people, 162 of whom were male (58%) and 115
to help car drivers shift to public transport. This aims at female (42%). The equitable distribution of the ages of the
promoting modern, environment-friendly and clean mobility respondents can be seen in figure 1. To argue that the reached
[1]. If it is referred to the studies carried out in the USA [2] repartition could be assumed as representative, a comparison
and to the preliminary study by the BDU (Federal Association with the repartition of the population of Munich (status:
of German Management Consultants, German: 31.12.2018) is shown in figure 2 [14]. The comparison shows
Bundesverband deutscher Unternehmensberater e.V.) [3], this that the distribution of age of respondents and residents in
view would be strongly argued. Indeed, the number of e- most groups are very similar. Exceptions are: the groups
scooter rides (38.5 million in 2018) exceeded in the USA the between 26 and 35 (up to 7% more) and between 46 and 59
number of rides of station-based bike-sharing [4, 5]. Besides (14% less). This could result in a higher percentage of users
the big interest on e-scooters, a big part of the interviewed than the actual number. In this analysis of use or non-use of
believe on their potential to be used as a shuttle to public e-scooters we focus on potential users, for this reason are the
transport stations (BDU) [3]. However, the differences age groups under 18 and over 60 omitted, as these age groups
between the German and American transport culture is large are either excluded by law or are not considered as potential
and a forecast does not necessarily correspond to reality. A customers of the sharing offers.
Paris study offers a European comparison and shows that
more than one third of the users in Paris use e-scooter weekly
[6]. However, Paris and Munich are also difficult to compare
in terms of transport services.
Since mid-June 2019, electric scooters have been
approved and are now part of the cityscape in Germany.
Moreover, their simple unlocking process is very tempting.
Since the approval some studies were done in Germany
including the city of Munich. A study done by the Nunatak
Group took a look at 5 German cities but did not consider
them separately [7] and Civity Management Consultants
analysed the data collected from three e-scooter providers in
Germany [8]. Both of them took place in September 2019. In

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 could explain why a study in Portland found out that from 5
emergency room visits more than 4 were the result of an
18 - 25
46 - 59
14%
individual falling off [20]. A safety comparison cannot be
17%
limited on tire size only and has to take more aspects into
consideration. While 20% of the respondents would ride one
41 - 45 e-scooter in pairs, 34% would do it with a bicycle. 19% of the
11% 26 - 30 respondents would ride an e-scooter and 43% would ride a
22%
bicycle under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. This
36 - 40
result is presumably influenced by the German law: bicycle
15% drivers would run into serious issues with the police from a
31 - 35
blood alcohol content (BAC) of 1.6 permille [21] where e-
21% scooter drivers already from a BAC of 0.5 permille (0.0 for
under 21 years old and for those in the probation period) [22].
The current situation, where e-scooters should be ridden on
Figure 1. Age groups of the respondents, number and shares (N = 277) cycle paths and roads, meets only the opinion of 64% of the
respondents.

18 - 25 Bikes and e-
15% Bikes and e- scooters are both
scooters are unsafe
46 - 59 10%
both safe
31%
13%
26 - 30
Other
15%
7%
Bikes are
41 - 45 safer than e-
11% 31 - 35 scooters
15% 69% E-scooters are
36 - 40 safer than bike
13% 1%

Figure 2. Munich population in 31.12.2018 (N = 968.624) [14]

Figure 4. Participants' opinion on safety (N = 277)

III. RESULTS & DISCUSSION
The fun factor of electric scooters has been mentioned in
almost every study published so far. This made a general
question of opinion in this study indispensable. In fact, a
quarter of the respondents perceive the e-scooters as a
leisure/fun object and 28% of them as a pure means of
A. Although e-scooters are very present in the street scene
they are not often used
The 3-month data-analysis of two e-scooter companies in
the city of Indianapolis has led to the result that 85% of the
scooters were used for less than an hour per day [23]. In
Munich 60% of 
 
 respondents have ridden an e-
transport. scooter. They are classified as users in the following text.
Almost three quarters of the users have ridden less than 20
times, 28% of them admitted that they will not use an e-
Neither of
them
scooter any more. It was not obligatory to give an exact
13% Means of number of rides in the questionnaire. Nevertheless, half of
transport them did reply (N = 87). Two thirds of them made a total of
28% less than four rides.

Both of them
Almost 70% of non-users do not intend to ride an electric
35% scooter. The main reasons for this decision are safety, the
Leisure/fun ecological aspect and the price per rental.
object
24%
B. E-scooters do not replace cars and are not used for
daily distances
According to our survey e-scooter rides replace walking
Figure 3. How the respondents perceive electric scooters (N = 277)
in first place, followed by public transport and cycling coming
in third place. Bike sharing comes only in fourth place, which
Nearly 70% of the respondents find bikes safer than e- allow us the suggestion that e-scooters-sharing and bike
scooters (Figure 4). To the best of our knowledge there is so sharing have different target groups. Indeed, a spatiotemporal
far no study comparing the safety of e-scooters to the safety comparison between data of sharing e-scooters and bikes in
of bikes.      smaller tires of e-scooters have Washington shows that members use the bike sharing for
more problems to overcome street obstacles [18, 19] and commuting unlike e-scooter and casual bike riders (use peek

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at the middle of the day and high weekend tendency). It shows more often if the self-chosen price model would be applied.
also that distances made by e-scooters are shorter than those After all, 37% of the users have already combined an e-
made by bikes [24]. In this survey the car was mentioned less scooter ride with public transport in a travel.
often. Most of the users (86%) who have frequently used an
e-scooter (over 20 rides) drive irregularly. Users and non- No own income
No answer 3%
users with plans to use e-scooters gave leisure as the most
9%
(possible) purpose of travel, followed by sightseeing and 
!!!
"
tourism purposes. This corresponds to the results of the 5%
Indianapolis study, where the peak hours for renting an e- #
$!!!
"
scooter in weekdays were between 16:00 and 20:00 and an 42%
increase in activity just before midday (probably short lunch
trips) was noticed. In the same study an excess of 150 active
!!!
"
- 3000
trips per minute in the peak hours in the weekends was "
registered on the other hand only 70 in the weekdays. [23] 41%

You wouldn't have made the trip

17
otherwise
Car-Sharing 18
Figure 7. The monthly net income of the participants (N = 277)
Car/motorbike 22

Bike-Sharing 37 D. E-scooters should not be parked on the sidewalk

Bike 62
63% of the respondents feel disturbed by e-scooters are
parked on the sidewalk. The high availability is divided into
Public transport 98 3 almost equal opinions: Good, Neutral and Disturbing
On foot
(Figure 8). 59% of the respondents would prefer that e-
133
scooters are only allowed to be parked in designated parking
Number of answers 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 spaces as it is the case in the center of Tel Aviv [25]. If parking
spaces were introduced in the city, 83% of users would accept
Figure 5. How the participants would otherwise have arrived at their one to 2 minutes of extra distance for free minutes and 40%
destination (multiple choice possible) (N = 167) up to 4 minutes. Voi is now introducing virtual parking zones
in four German Cities (Munich included). Virtual because
these zones exist only on the map of the app. To motivate the
users, Voi is offering 50-cent discount to rents ending in one
Accompaniment 16
of these zones [26].
For other purposes 37

Purchase 60

Work, education, university, school or

79 Good
similar Neutral
36% 35%
Sightseeing, Tourism 91

Leisure 124

Number of answers 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Disturbing
29%
Figure 6. For which raisons would the users and non-users with plans to
use e-scooters the e-scooters use (multiple choice possible) (N = 202)

Figure 8. How the respondants find a high availability of e-scooters

C. From First Mile Last Mile (FMLM) vehicle are e- (N = 277)
scooters far away
60% of the users have never combined e-scooters with any
E. E-scooters are not perceived as environmentally friendly
other means of transport to reach their destination. Although
they are well paid (Figure 7), almost two thirds of the Only 13% of those surveyed think that e-scooters are
respondents find e-scooters expensive to very expensive. environmentally friendly. This is contradictory to the Nunatak
According to the respondents, the service should be included study, where environmental friendliness is mentioned as one
in the public transport ticket. However, this option is almost of the most common reasons for using e-scooters [7].
unrealistic. Only inute-price  was the second most chosen
option. The starting fees !" make the e-scooters very
unattractive for short distances and destroy their first mile last
mile potential. More than half of the respondents would ride

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No idea Eco-friendly
13% 13%
 
  
 $

Eco-neutral
Eco- 30%
unfriendly
44%
Figure 9. How the participants see e-scooter (N = 277)
Exploring this question scientifically is complex. First the
emissions caused by the production and recycling of an e-
scooter must be calculated, then the emissions caused by the
charging of electricity must be added. At the moment e-
scooters are collected by vans, brought to the charging station
and then get distributed again [10,15]. Currently approaches
exist already though using exchangeable batteries or carrying
out CO2 reduced distributions [17] as well as the
implementation of docking stations [27].
How environmentally friendly the e-scooters are also
depends on their lifespan. So far there are no reliable figures
on the lifespan. The balance must also consider which means
of transport e-scooters are replacing. As this survey has
shown, they replace mostly walking distances and therefore
they would have a negative impact on the environment. If they
would contribute to an increase of public transport usage as
FMLM-vehicles at some point, they might have
environmentally a chance. [10,15,28,29]
IV. CONCLUSION
An online survey with 277 respondents has shown that, e-
scooters mainly replace walking and public transport and are
not used often despite their large presence in the cityscape.
The introduction of parking spaces with integrated
charging facilities could protect electric scooters from their
bad reputation as deduced in this study. This reputation covers
the aspects of environment, safety and the cityscape. This
would lead to rethink the basic principle: dockless
transportation. But the study showed that a very big majority
of the respondents would accept a distance extension of 2
minutes.
The absence of first mile last mile (FMLM) using in this
study besides the big enthusiasm in the preliminary study
(BDU) for the FMLM potential could be traced back to the
pricing model.
An analysis of the suppliers' data for a timescale of one
year would allow an actual evaluation of the use and
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The survey was carried out in connection with a citizen
mobility meta-sprint. # 
Hub Mobility platform aimed at creating and implementing
joint solutions to the mobility problems of cities. As part of a
co-innovation process research, companies, start-ups and
cities have come together to work on mobility solutions for
city residents.
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