How data and collaboration help create people-friendly cities

Designing people-friendly and sustainable cities requires collaboration and informed decisions.

At Bolt, we’re happy to share the data and expertise we’ve gathered from operating in 500+ cities to create a better living environment for us all.

In this blog post, we’ll look at how data can be used to make cities more liveable and how we collaborate with cities and local institutions to make urban mobility more affordable, safe, and sustainable.

Turning data into sustainable cities

Bolt is Europe’s largest micromobility provider and a leader in mobility solutions. And being on the frontlines of mobility, we rely on data — trillions of bytes of it.

We share relevant real-time data with city officials in all the cities where it’s requested.

We share data points like:

• How many scooters and e-bikes are available, and their characteristics like battery life;
• Vehicle location and ride history;
• Parking rack and charging dock locations;
• Pricing and rental terms;
• Geofenced areas (speed limits, parking, and prohibited zones).

Cities can thus get a complete overview of our services and whether we comply with local regulations.

But that’s not all our data can do.

How data can further help cities

Not all cities are as tech-heavy as us, so many could take advantage of our data-collecting abilities.

City officials can use our input to make commuters’ lives safer and more convenient, reduce congestion and emissions, and save money by eliminating the need to expand transit routes.

To name a few, cities can use our data to:

• See what popular routes would benefit from bike lanes;
• Discover areas where public transport could be improved;
• Locate places that need designated parking spots for shared e-vehicles;
• Make tactical infrastructure improvements, e.g., raising curbs and improving roads.

What does it take to make cities safer?

Creating people-friendly cities is about more than just sharing data. It takes collaboration, innovation, and education.

So what’s needed to solve an issue in a city? Let’s take one of our priorities — safety — as an example.

While we take many steps to ensure rider safety, we can accomplish more when working in partnership with cities.

How we can help make cities safer:

• Provide cities data and other input on safety-related rules and best practices;
• Provide data to help cities develop safer infrastructure;
• Collect feedback and drive dialogue with community members outside of the city administration;
• Consider new safety features (hardware and software) based on city or citizen input.

And here’s how cities can help us make cities safer:

• Establish a baseline of micromobility safety regulations, including speed limits;
• Provide safe road infrastructure like protected lanes for scooters and bikes;
• Ensure road maintenance.

If cities introduce regulations, we adapt. For example, we partnered with Drover, the AI-based solutions provider for shared mobility, to tackle scooters being ridden on the pavement in cities where it’s prohibited.

What else could be done?

Here are examples of how Bolt, cities, and local institutions could work together to create people-friendly cities.

Partnering with public transport operators, including via MaaS (Mobility as a Service) integrations. We cooperate with cities and complement their public transport systems. Bolt’s services can be integrated into public transport systems (like in Oslo) for a seamless commuter experience.

Shared vehicles increase the popularity of public transport by solving the first and last-mile problem, especially when commuters can plan and pay for their whole trip in one app.

Partnering with organisations directly or indirectly linked to a city. Our mobility solutions have been used in university campuses, in business parks like in Neukölln, Berlin, by hospital workers in various European cities, and by municipal police officers in Riga, Latvia, to name a few.

Charging dock and parking rack partnerships. Designated parking racks help address the issue of improperly parked vehicles. And charging docks help make cities greener by reducing the trips our Operations team has to take. These designated parking areas are a simple yet effective way to improve micromobility parking culture.

We’re the only micromobility operator to implement charging docks, transforming how scooters and e-bikes are charged and helping improve parking behaviours. Our partnership with Fuzebox helps save energy and reduce CO2 emissions as we can charge vehicles at off-peak times.

We also partnered with Swobbee to make charging our scooters more sustainable and efficient with the help of their battery-swapping kiosks.

Joint communications. We can help local initiatives reach a larger audience through our channels. We continue to carry out safety campaigns with city officials and transport authorities.

Surveys. We work with universities and research institutes to understand public opinion. In 2021, we partnered with the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics, TØI, to study the popularity of eco-friendly transportation.

The results showed that people prefer more sustainable modes of transport (such as scooters) than ride-hailing when it’s easy, convenient, and affordable.

Community partnerships. We promote safe and sustainable micromobility practices during European Mobility Week and other events in cities across Europe.

We also partner with community organisations, like DVW, the German road safety organisation.

If you want to join forces to make your home city a better place, feel free to contact us.