Shared micromobility operator Bolt has announced that more than 20 million km of car journeys were avoided in 2022 as people chose to use Bolt e-scooters rather than cars.
The findings came from a survey Bolt conducted, which had responses from 7,000 customers across 17 European markets.
In total, 2.4 million kg of CO2 equivalent emissions were avoided by the modal shift, according to the company.
Tatiana Samsonova, Bolt’s Scooter Sustainability Specialist who led the research, told Zag Daily that calculations were based on the number of trips done by e-scooters in a country or city combined with the car replacement rate (derived from the survey).
“After multiplying that number by the average distance traveled by an e-scooter in a specific country we were able to translate that into the distance that would have been otherwise made by car,” said Samsonova. “As the last step, the distance replaced was multiplied by the difference in terms of emissions on a per passenger kilometer basis between an e-scooter and private car. This gave us the amount of emissions saved in a specific country.”
Customers were also asked whether they used the scooter to connect to public transport. Findings showed that on average 38% of e-scooter trips either started or finished near bus, tram or train stations.
On average almost 4 in 10 rides across 17 countries connected with public transportation, and in some markets this figure was even higher, with 46% of scooter rides connecting with public transport in Germany, 43% in Czech Republic and 41% in Poland.
Dmitri Pivovarov, Bolt’s VP of Rentals, said the findings provide further evidence of the benefits micromobility can have for cities by replacing car journeys and thereby reducing road transport emissions.
“That means cleaner air for everyone, as well as increased space on the road for more sustainable means of transport,” said Pivovarov.
