Jan 3, 2023
With misparked scooters still a challenge for cities, we’re constantly developing new safety features and educating our riders on correct parking.
But this summer, we took a different approach by asking our employees to re-park any poorly parked scooters or e-bikes — to help make our cities tidier and safer.
In June 2022, we launched a three-month-long initiative and created a separate channel in our internal messaging tool, Slack.
The rules were simple — if you saw a scooter or e-bike in trouble (lying on the ground or parked somewhere it shouldn’t be), help it up, take a photo, and share it in the messaging channel.
What began as a fun way to engage our employees soon became a movement similar to Swedish plogging — a combination of jogging and litter picking.
Three hundred people joined in — many picking up scooters and re-parking them on their morning run or commute.
Others did so on their way home and even while on holiday!
And others played their part in helping prevent ‘robot wars’.
And we didn’t discriminate between Bolt and other operators’ scooters, as the initiative was about making our streets clutter-free, regardless of the scooter in question.
Every one of the 495 messages posted in the ‘Save our scooters’ Slack channel included pictures of at least one saved scooter or e-bike. So, it’s safe to say that Bolt employees helped over 500 e-vehicles in different European cities last summer.
Encouraging friends and relatives to follow our lead also contributed to the nudge effect — people started noticing and helping scooters out.
We asked some of our employees to share why they decided to take part in this initiative, and here’s what they said:
“Knowing I wasn’t the only person re-parking scooters motivated me, and I felt that the collective effort would allow us to make a big change.”
Johannes Gustav Varkki, Customer Support Escalation Specialist.
“I’d already been picking up improperly parked scooters before we started this initiative — to allow people to move more freely. It’s been fun to see people’s surprised looks when a young woman in a dress and a big hat easily picks up and moves scooters around.”
Anna Selecka, Brand Project Manager.
“Ever since I first helped a sad-looking scooter on the side of the road, I got pretty hooked on the idea.”
Karl Einaru, Technical Recruiter.
“I was saving scooters before the challenge, so it was only natural to continue. It was also cool to see so many people joining the initiative.”
Tamara Casasa, People Operations Team Lead.
Although riding behaviour and parking typically improve over time, poorly parked scooters are a safety risk — especially for those with sight loss and reduced mobility.
When you park correctly, you contribute to the tidiness of city streets and help the safety of vulnerable groups.
So, here’s a quick reminder of what to remember when parking a scooter or an e-bike:
And here are the biggest mistakes to avoid:
We can all help contribute to tidier and safer streets. And if you want to follow our lead, you know the rules:
Or, if you’re unable to help, let us know about poorly parked scooters via the button in the Bolt app or our web page.
