Read the University of Illinois Champaign-Urban’s News Bureau’s writeup here.
Check out an abstract for the article, and access and purchase options here.
It took me a while to come around to embracing the rise of electric scooter use, but in recent years I’ve come around to seeing the upsides of the mode. The gadgets provide an alternative to automobile use for people who aren’t interested in exercising and/or risking getting sweaty during a commute. Fewer cars on the street means less danger to other road users, pollution, and congestion.
And many “scooteristas” are, understandably, unwilling to share the road with fast drivers. That creates a larger constituency for installing protected lanes on main streets, and Neighborhood Greenways on residential roads. That in turn encourages all sustainable transportation device users to ride in the street, not on sidewalks, making conditions safer for people on foot.
So I was was troubled when I recently heard about a new study from University of Illinois researchers that argued e-scooters actually have major downsides in terms of increasing car use and lawbreaking.
The University of Illinois Champaign-Urban’s News Bureau reported earlier this fall, “The introduction of shared e-scooters in Chicago boosted demand for [ride-hail] services but reduced bike-share usage — and was also linked with higher rates of street and vehicle-related crime in neighborhoods, says new research co-authored by Unnati Narang, a professor of business administration at the Gies College of Business.” The project was a collaboration with Ruichun Liu of San José State University, a former Illinois graduate student.
That statement rang “Correlation does necessarily not equal causation” alarm bells in my head, so I reached out to Narang for more info on their methodology. In the following section, I’ll walk through excerpts from the News Bureau’s article (in quotes) followed by the questions I emailed Narang about the study (in bold), followed by passages from her written responses (in italics). After that, I’ll share some responses to the U. of I. findings from a local transportation expert; one of Chicago’s e-scooter concessionaires; and a mobility justice advocateRead the full interview with Narang, here.
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