Suburban Shared Mopeds

Abstract

In recent years, the introduction of shared micromobility options such as scooters, mopeds, and bikes has transformed transportation in densely populated urban areas. Interestingly, when looking at shared moped availability, it can be observed that they are rarely available in less densely populated areas, such as the suburbs around large cities. This can be explained by the fact that financial viability for private operators is unlikely in these regions because of the lower demand compared to highly densely populated areas. Nevertheless, the introduction of shared mopeds to these suburban regions comes with many external societal effects. These effects can not be internalised by a private operator but could be internalised by a governmental body. However, from a governmental perspective, allowing and supporting shared mopeds in their region is only interesting if these external effects result in a societal welfare increase.

To this end, a societal cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) has been conducted to evaluate and quantify the societal effects of introducing shared mopeds in the suburban region of Schiedam. Using this analysis, an overview of the net societal benefit of shared mopeds and the profit/loss for an operator in a suburban region has been obtained. Seven conceptualised effects were valued quantitatively; operator setup cost, operator operating costs, operator revenue, accessibility, carbon emissions, noise emissions, and traffic safety. Three conceptualised effects were valued qualitatively; parking nuisance, public space freed, and the option value. Furthermore, two shared moped operator business models have been investigated; free-floating and hub-based models. To show the uncertainty of the net societal benefit figure a sensitivity analysis has been performed from the perspective of an operator. This sensitivity analysis has three scenarios: worst, nominal, and best.

Accessibility and safety are the most important positive and negative externalities, being responsible for over 80% of the net societal benefit in all scenarios. The SCBA net societal benefit is positive, for the nominal scenario when an operator uses a free-floating model. The net societal benefit becomes negative when using a hub-based model. The difference in the net societal benefit value between the worst (very negative) and best (very positive) is large. This shows that there is a high amount of uncertainty in the SCBA result, which is caused by not all effects being included and safety and accessibility having a considerable influence on the overall societal benefit figure. Nevertheless, this research provides a framework to investigate shared moped operator viability and the societal impact in a (potential) region. Moreover, it gives insight into that safety and accessibility effects should be prioritised when discussing the introduction of shared mopeds into a suburban region, but also which effects still need to be investigated further.