Over two million e-scooter rides in the last two years puts Nottingham among the most popular cities for the shared scooter scheme in the UK.
Nottingham’s e-scooter service began in October 2020 operated by Wind UK, which was then acquired by Superpedestrian in 2021.
Jean Andrews, Policy Director for UK and Ireland at Superpedestrian, told Zag Daily that the support from the local council for the trials as well as the large student population in the city are key factors in helping them achieve such positive results.
“The local council really backs the trials,” said Andrews. They have been very supportive. And we know from our rider surveys and from our data that students and graduates are using them to get to university and to work.”
One of Superpedestrian’s strategies has been to use e-scooters to fill the gaps in the public transport system.
“We recently integrated with the Nottingham City Transport app (NCTX) to help residents combine their journeys with public transport,” said Andrews.
Superpedestrian has also seen some encouraging results as it looks to avoid irresponsible pavement parking, one of the main points of conflict with the transit departments. “We installed ten parking stations around the city and next to Nottingham train station to encourage safe and tidy parking. Early signs show this to be a huge success. They’re not cluttering the pavements in any way.”
The average journey length of a Superpedestrian e-scooter trip lasts 11 minutes (2.4km) and popular destinations, include the University of Nottingham main campus, Dunkirk, and Lenton, which shows its popularity among students. They are also used by people visiting Nottingham Castle and Old Market Square.
“It’s clear from our strong ridership numbers that scooters are not just a novelty in Nottingham, they’re real transport,” added Andrews. “Our goal going into the next year of operation is to continue to educate riders about safe riding and parking as scooters serve a critical role in the transport system. We’re excited to bring even more technology to our Nottingham fleet in the next year to help meet that goal.”
