Today, the digital association Bitkom published new survey results on the use of e-scooters in Germany, which have been legal since June 2019. According to the results, 43 percent of Germans consider e-scooters to be supplementing public transport in the city and 51 percent have ridden them at least once so far.
For this representative survey, Bitkom Research on behalf of Bitkom, interviewed a total of 1,003 people in Germany aged 16 and above about their usage of e-scooters.
These are further insights:
- 43 percent of German consumers saw e-scooters as a good supplement to public transport in the city. Among 16- to 29-year-olds, 54 percent held this view, and 27 percent among older people aged 65 and above considered this.
- Also, 42 percent of respondents considered e-scooters as an important contribution to climate protection – 54 percent among younger people and 27 percent among older people. If e-scooters were available in sufficient quantities, 29 percent of respondents would forgo private car trips in the city – as would 37 percent of 16- to 29-year-olds and 17 percent of older respondents.
- 51 percent said they had ridden an e-scooter at least once, 19 percent could imagine doing so in the future and 26 percent, on the other hand, had no plans to do so at all.
- Some consumers were against e-scooters because, among other things, e-scooters disfigured the city scape (85 percent), blocked bike and pedestrian paths (78 percent), are considered too dangerous and should therefore be banned (42 percent). Regarding the latter, a full 66 percent of older people held this opinion and only 21 percent of younger people.
Nils Heller, Mobility Officer at Bitkom, noted: "Electric scooters for short-term hire via smartphone are now just as much a part of our everyday lives as privately purchased e-scooters for the regular commute to work. Our mobility must change fundamentally with a view to climate protection and sustainability. E-scooters can make a contribution to this – especially in conjunction with digital technologies that enable networking with existing public transport services and various modes of transport. To curb the parking problem, cities and municipalities can invest in micro-mobility parking spaces, for example, or set quality criteria for providers, such as on safety and sustainability."
Source: Bitkom
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