Sep 11, 2020
In September 2019, we made a commitment to reduce the ecological footprint of Bolt as a company. Our Green Plan was born.
As a first step, we set about offsetting the CO2 created by all our European Bolt rides. Next, we promised to work towards reducing the impact on the environment by enriching our cities with more sustainable and greener means of transport.
As a company with experience in both the ride-hailing and rentals space, we had a unique opportunity to assess the impact of the shift to more environmentally friendly urban travel. So, we asked ourselves, how much do we really cut down on carbon emissions by shifting from cars to scooters?
To evaluate the impact on the environment, we needed to understand how the availability of e-scooters affects the number of ride-hailing car trips in that market. So, we collected such data on the three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
To analyse the data, we defined 3 groups of users:
As it turns out, scooters do have a very positive impact. A lot of people gladly choose to ride a scooter instead of requesting a car ride when given the chance. Here are two key takeaways from our study:
Let’s do some creative maths based on our Baltic data.
In a city with 2,000 Bolt scooters in operation, this drop would mean up to 100,000 saved car journeys per year.
Under the same scenario, scooters would reduce at least 2.5 kg in exhaust emissions of PM2.5 and PM10. PM2.5 and PM10 are terms used for inhalable pollution particles found in the air, the difference lies in their diameter. In addition, non-exhaust particulate matter would also be cut to zero thanks to scooter use.
To further reduce unnecessary car rides, the Bolt app automatically suggests that users rent an electric scooter for trips shorter than 3 km, which make up more than a quarter of all ride-hailing trips.
It’s not all about the rides, however. It’s also about making the scooter itself sustainable.
Generally speaking, electric scooters tend to degrade due to overuse, poor infrastructure, weather and vandalism. Their short lifespan creates the need to produce more hardware to fill the gap, and more production leads to bigger carbon emissions. It’s a downward spiral.
To represent our green mindset, we built a long-life e-scooter that’s lightweight, environmentally friendly and safe-to-use.
To make the electric scooter durable, yet convenient to use, our in-house hardware team kept a keen eye on every step of the building process, from start to finish. And here’s what makes this model so great:
In addition to creating a greener vehicle, we’re actively looking for ways to cut down the emissions created during the collection and distribution of scooters.
So, according to our findings, Bolt scooters have a significant role to play when it comes to reducing the number of unnecessary ride-hailing trips.
The next time you’re running late for work or thinking of hailing a ride to catch your next train, consider taking a scooter instead. You’ll get some fresh air and help to keep the city clean. Just tap on the banner below to download the app and get going.
