Superpedestrian scooters lined up in one of the many designated parking zones in Eugene, Ore. (Sebastian Flores/Emerald)
On Dec. 18, the City of Eugene announced an end to its E-Scooter Pilot Program, following the closure of Superpedestrian’s U.S. operations. This news came before the original March 2024 deadline when the city intended to determine if the pilot program would continue.
The University of Oregon had partnered with Cascadia Mobility, Lane Transit District and Superpedestrian to provide easily accessible e-scooters in an effort to reach the City of Eugene’s goals of sustainability, equity and safety in transportation in 2023.
According to the city’s announcement, Superpedestrian said that the reason for the closure of U.S. operations is due to “financial reasons.” No further details were shared. The closure comes after the company raised $125 million just 18 months ago.
“The City of Eugene recently started up an E-Scooter Pilot Program and I felt like it was really important for the University of Oregon to partner with the city and other regional partners on that effort,” said UO Director of Transportation Services David Reesor.
UO Transportation and Cascadia Mobility voiced their opinions regarding Superpedestrian before the announcement.
According to Operations Director of Cascadia Mobility, Al Hongo, neither Cascadia Mobility nor the city received any demographic data from Superpedestrian.
“We have no demographic information,” Hongo said. “The scooters themselves are owned still by the vendor, Superpedestrian. So all the user data is hidden from us.“
“They [Superpedestrian] don’t want to share that [data]. They don’t want to give that to anybody because they see it as a competitive disadvantage to share that information.”
Additionally, Hongo said that the only user data shared by Superpedestrian is that roughly two thirds of e-scooter trips are taken by riders with non-local zip codes.
UO Transportation has received ridership data through a third-party platform, which aggregates and anonymizes information from Superpedestrian’s MDS feed, according to UO Transportation Planner Josh Kashinsky.
The data shows the overall number of trips taken on campus and route information. However no demographic information is determined.
Many UO students have voiced their concerns regarding the dangers of e-scooters.
“They can be dangerous,” UO student athlete Becca Kelley said. “Especially on campus and especially because sometimes the boys in general don’t have a sense of awareness. They kinda scoot through the intersections.”
“In Eugene, because it rains so much and there’s so many leaves on the ground, my friend got in a scooter crash. She fell and busted her tailbone because it was raining and there were leaves on the ground,” said Kelley.
According to Ressor, “there’s always risk involved in any type of transportation. We feel that the program has some good safety checkpoints in it to help reduce that risk. It doesn’t eliminate risk.”
In a survey conducted between Aug. 31 and Oct.9, Community Engagement Coordinator Willow Hamilton said that 38% of participants responded that they never wear a helmet while riding the e-scooter and that about 30 participants had a crash or a near crash on the e-scooter.
The pilot program was designed to implement progressive discipline to a rider who mishandles an e-scooter or disobeys the regulations.
“If they’re [the rider] violating a parking regulation or rule, for example, or if it’s documented that they’ve been doing acrobatics on it [e-scooter], we work as a team between the different agencies to implement that progressive discipline,” Ressor said.
Cascadia Mobility believes that the reason for negligence and misuse of e-scooters by riders was due to the lack of enforcement from Superpedestrian.
“The most common and most vocal complaint is for bad parking and that very directly is a result of the lack of enforcement,” Hongo said.
Both UO Transportation and Cascadia Mobility requested for more transparency from Superpedestrian regarding the follow through on punishment for violations.
UO Transportation requested for greater transparency regarding the types of progressive discipline tactics used and for a variety of methods to educate students on e-scooters.
Hongo noted that Superpedestrian e-scooter software lacks the ability to automate a fine to a rider for parking in no parking zones. Hongo also said that Cascadia Mobility requested Superpedestrian for more incentives to persuade riders to park the e-scooters at designated hubs.
In the first month of the pilot program, the e-scooter trips exceed expectations by 50%.
Following the announcement regarding the termination of the E-Scooter Pilot Program, the city hopes to continue the expansion of the PeaceHealth Rides bikeshare program.
“Despite this unexpected and disheartening news, we are excited that expanded bike share options continue to be available to our community, both for mobility needs and as an alternative to driving as we work to meet the City’s climate goals,” Mayor Lucy Vinis said in a statement on the city website.
The city will start the process of removing Superpedestrian e-scooters starting this week.
In an email statement, UO Director of Issues Management, Angela Seydel said that e-scooters will not be available at the start of the winter term.
Cascadia Mobility Executive Director, Brodie Hylton said that he did not see the closure coming, and will have to lay off four to five employees.
“It was absolutely a surprise,” Hylton said. “ We were in the middle of renegotiating our contract with Superpedestrian. Overnight we’ve sort of lost half our business and so we do need to [lay off employees].”
Hylton said he hopes that the city will from now on work with nonprofit operators.
“The city perhaps learned its lesson with profit providers,” Hylton said. “First with Uber, who was running the bikeshare program before and now Superpedestrian.”
Hylton said that “the loss of the Superpedestrian [e-]scooter program means we’ll [Cascadia Mobility] be losing the opportunity to get people out of their cars and on these devices, at least in the short term.”
