2021 Year in Review
TLDR: Bikes are back!
Bonjour-Hi 👋
Bienvenue / Welcome back to Lane Split!
We’ve been gone for a bit. But now we’re back. This month you’ll get a 2021 year in review on the next steps Canadian 🍁 cities are taking to prepare for the new-normal of new-mobility, industry trends that will arrive in 2022 for shared micromobility and a quick look at who is consolidating the market for shared bikes and scooters in Canada.
King of the Hill 👑
In 2021, a rush of private micromobility companies expanded into Canada. Neuron, Link, and Spin all had their first Canadian launch in 2021.
The question remains. Who is winning the race to consolidate the Canadian market? Who serves the most people and the most communities?
Lime is ahead when it comes to the number of markets but a different story emerges when you look at the size of the markets. Legacy docked bikeshare providers continue to dominate in terms of overall market size often with just one city.
Many larger Canadian markets will likely see shared scooters launched in 2022/2023 such as Montreal, Waterloo Region, Hamilton, Brampton, Mississauga, and Durham Region which could push multiple private shared micromobility companies over the legacy bikeshare providers in terms of total market size across the country.
E-Scooters Get a Rough Ride, Persevere
Shared e-scooter programs are often met with skepticism or worry. It’s often a new vehicle type and a big change for a community. Residents try it for the first time and trying things for the first time is risky. This often leads to concerns about riders not doing it right with improper riding and parking or leading to injuries.
In Canada after an initial period of concern, every community that has had shared e-scooter service continues to have the service or plans to bring it back in the near future. It’s often highlighted in pilot reports that the vehicles are safe (similar to bikes), remove car trips, and give community members more options to get around.
Cities Hop on Board 🏙️
Currently, 19 communities in Canada have shared micromobility services (shared 🛴 or🚲). More than 1 in 3 Canadians live in a community with these services available marking significant growth considering only five communities had these services in 2017.
Provinces Get Left Behind
Nova Scotia is the latest province to propose allowing e-scooters on public roads. Only 4% percent of Canadians live in a province or territory without legalized e-scooters (in select communities) or an announced intention to allow them. Pour one out for NB, NL, and PEI the only provinces left out.
2022 Trends to Watch
Rugged Design 💎
All Canadian private shared micromobility players have upgraded vehicles this year with significant improvements to rider comfort, safety, and longevity as companies try to improve unit economics for their service. Some vehicles are billed as having a lifespan of 5-7 years of use and exposure to the elements a long way from the one month lifespan when providers used consumer-grade vehicles in 2018.
Vehicle Variety 🛴 + ⚡🚲+ 🚲 = 🛵
Private shared micromobility companies have almost all incorporated a wider selection of vehicles than just the e-scooter. Bird, Lime and Spin had Canadian e-bike launches in Windsor, North Vancouver and Kelowna. Expect more of this, we may even see shared e-mopeds in Canada this year.
All Roads Lead to Stock Vehicles
Many early shared scooter companies reached into the hardware manufacturing game to build longer lasting scooters. Most of these companies have abandoned this as illustrated here for e-scooters delivered by various global brands which are almost all migrating to OKAI or Segway as the supplier of those rugged vehicles they were after (h/t Augustin Freidel). Look for more of this and more vehicles that look the same with different branding.
Attached Helmets ⛑️
In all of BC’s markets, vendors are required to attach helmets to shared vehicles aligning with the all-ages bicycle and e-scooter helmet law there. Neuron, a shared e-bike and e-scooter operator, deploys an attached helmet in every market they enter in Canada.
Smart Scooters 🤓
Ottawa and Kelowna require shared e-scooters to detect sidewalk riding and provide a response to correct user behavior. Many different companies in Canada are building technology that aims to separate the wild riders from the herd with detection for double riding, skidding, wrong-way riding or prevent other types of inappropriate use through sensors and software. Here’s a fun read about how these systems work and their history.
Imagine if we had that for cars.
A Sound for the Visually Impaired 🔉
Electric cars have a special noise when you accelerate like a soft mechanical whir. This sound is not the noise from the engine rather it’s a sound designed for the visually impaired and maybe a little bit to feel like you’re piloting a spaceship. E-scooter companies are working with the City of Ottawa to find this type of sound for scooters that is both not annoying to the public but alerts everyone that a scooter is nearby.
Greener and Cleaner 🔋
Almost every shared e-scooter and e-bike company now uses swappable batteries. This allows a low battery vehicle to have its battery replaced instead of removed to be charged and then redeployed. This feature is a game-changer enabling a 51% reduction in GHG emissions.
This also unlocks the need to move bulky scooters across town allowing for operations to happen in small electrified vehicles like e-bikes or maybe even utility scooters in the future.
That’s all for this month, but stayed tuned:
Issue #3 will be out the first week of May - just enough time to catch top of the month announcements.
This is a free newsletter - so if you enjoyed it, help us grow by giving a share to your network - whether they’re micromobility evangelists or skeptics, this will save them the hassle of a dozen news-alerts.
With a return to a relatively pandemic-free summer 🤞, persistent pain at the pump🛢️, and more cities launching 🚀 we could see the biggest year ever for Canadian shared micromobility.
If you have any feedback - you can message me, or follow along at @Lane_Split on Twitter. We’d love to know your thoughts - comments, critiques, or what you’d like to see included in the next issue.
Until next time, here’s whatever this is:
Cheers,
Matt Worona