Eugene’s electric scooter one-year pilot program launched in March 2023, with over 125,000 trips made in the first five months . As the first year of the pilot reaches its midway point, the City is evaluating the program’s impact on safety, sustainability, accessibility and equity. Through a six-month survey, and with a focus on city goals, staff will gather valuable data and insights for understanding how the program has impacted the Eugene community.
Community members can take the survey via Engage Eugene at https://engage.eugene-or.gov/escooters through September 30th, 2023.
The survey is only one piece of the evaluation process. City staff will also evaluate the electric scooter program based on the following high-level city goals:
- increasing transportation choices and reducing automobile reliance
- increasing the number of active transportation trips
- contributing to climate recovery through reduced fossil fuel consumption
- creating a fair and equitable transportation system for all travelers
“The City is dedicated to gaining a deeper understanding of the impact the electric scooter program is having on safety, sustainability, accessibility and equity in Eugene. The insights we gather during the one-year pilot will aid us and City leadership in making informed decisions regarding the future of micromobility in Eugene” said Karen Mason, Transportation Planner with the City of Eugene.
The survey will help staff understand how e-scooters are being used, how they might be contributing to transportation choice and mode shift, community perspective on the program, and perceptions of safety and accessibility . The data collected will be shared with the public in November 2023. In addition to city goals, staff will assess the program based on the below criteria:
- Mode Choice and Sustainability: When assessing the sustainability of shared e-scooters, staff will analyze data reported by Superpedestrian on the energy/fuel consumed during deployment, rebalancing, charging, and maintenance processes. This data will supplement survey responses to questions on transportation choices before and after scootershare introduction.
- Equity: Superpedestrian provides monthly data on the usage of the low-income service-rate plans (called LINK-Up), education and outreach efforts, and the usage of the program by unbanked individuals or those without smartphones. City staff will collect data to analyze the program's usage by geography, including trip origins and destinations, and its correlation with parking hub locations. Demographic information collected from user surveys, such as age, race, sex, and income, will help identify any potential disparities in access and usage.
- Safety and Accessibility: Staff will assess safety reports from Superpedestrian that summarize user-involved collision and injury incidents, complaints received, customer service responses, penalties issued to users, maintenance logs, and efforts related to education and outreach. The program will also consider incident reports from the Eugene Police Department (EPD) and medical reports, in addition to survey questions about e-scooter parking and riding behavior, such as helmet usage and sidewalk riding.