Oct 19, 2023
Since the launch of Bolt’s shared scooter service in 2018, we’ve continuously developed and implemented new features and initiatives that enhance the safety of our users and others on the road.
To make our commitment to safety clear, in early 2023, we published the Bolt Safety Pledge, which highlights our safety priorities and measures to meet these.
To continue our safety improvements, Bolt assembled a Micromobility Safety Committee, which held its first meeting at Bolt headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, on 26 September 2023.
The Committee consists of 6 external experts who provide Bolt with feedback and recommendations regarding our safety performance, strategy, and initiatives.
During the Committee meeting, a key discussion point was Bolt’s recent development of a new micromobility pricing model that charges riders based on the distance they travel, rather than the duration of their trips.
This would fundamentally reverse the pricing model that’s standard across the shared micromobility industry. And it would remove a key incentive for users to save money by reaching their destinations as quickly as possible and potentially speeding or taking other safety risks.
Committee members strongly endorsed the initiative, which Bolt will launch in Brussels, Belgium, later this year, becoming the first micromobility operator to implement such a pricing structure.
In addition to launching a distance-based pricing pilot, the Committee also recommended that Bolt review its data-gathering methods to better assess the impact of micromobility on vulnerable people, such as people with visual impairments.
This will help to better understand the degree of potential risks and take steps to address them.
The Committee also advised Bolt to take steps to harmonise some definitions and data collection methods with existing international standards in the road safety sector.
Based on these recommendations, we’ve committed to updating our data-gathering and report the results to the Committee at the next meeting in March 2024.
To find out more about the Committee’s discussions, read our meeting summary here. And to find out more about Bolt’s distance-based pricing initiative, contact us at safetylab@bolt.eu.
