CHI 2020 Paper CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA

E-scooters on the Ground:

Lessons for Redesigning Urban Micro-Mobility
Leave Authors Anonymous
Sylvaine Tuncer Barry Brown
DSV, Stockholm University DSV, Stockholm University
Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm, Sweden
sylvaine@dsv.su.se barry@dsv.su.se

ABSTRACT (or free-floating) network-connected rental e-scooters [17].

The worldwide deployment of rental electric scooters has Each vehicle can be unlocked through the app and left
generated new opportunities for urban mobility, but also anywhere within a perimeter at the end of the journey.
intensified conflict over public space. This article reports on Building on this success, e-scooters are also being purchased
an ethnographic study of both rental and privately-owned e- by private users, creating a new form of single user transit
scooters, mapping out the main problems and potentials that fits in and expands upon cities’ existing infrastructure
around this new form of ‘micro-mobility’. While it suffers for bicycles and pedestrians. While this offers new
from problems of reliability and conflict, user experience is opportunities for less invasive and polluting transit than cars,
an important part of e-scooters’ appeal, an enjoyable way of it also causes considerable debate regarding safety, use of
‘hacking the city’. E-scooters have a hybrid character: public space, and environmental damage. But it is
weaving through the city, riders can switch between riding exceptional that a new transport mode be adopted so quickly,
as a pedestrian, a car or a bicycle. Building on these results, and in addition to their unique affordances in use, this makes
we discuss how e-scooters, ridesharing services, and their e-scooters an interesting case of innovative mobility design.
apps could develop further, alongside the role for HCI in re-
thinking urban transport and vehicle design. In this paper, we investigate these developments drawing on
an ethnographic study conducted in Paris, including five
Author Keywords weeks of fieldwork observations; interviews with shop
Electric scooters; Micro-mobility; User experience; Co- owners, city representatives and e-scooter renters and
ordination in mobile interactions; Intermodal mobility; owners; video recordings of e-scooter use; and an
Vehicle design unsystematic survey of media reports. We explore how these
CSS Concepts vehicles support a ‘hybrid’ form of mobility that combines
• Human-centered computing~Human computer interaction practices from existing forms of transit in a dynamic way.
(HCI)~HCI design and evaluation methods~ User studies They can also be part of rental services, dependent upon apps
• Human-centered computing~Human computer interaction and smartphones as much as electric motors and tires. Our
(HCI)~HCI design and evaluation methods~Field studies data then lets us document users’ new experiences in both
domains of riding and renting, and how they adopt and make
INTRODUCTION use of micro-mobility alongside existing transport modes.
While digital technology has had a broad impact on transit We contrast the use of rental e-scooters, which offers great
(through real time transit times, for example [5]), the creation spontaneity but also suffers from problems of unreliability,
of a whole new mode of transport in itself is rare. Electric with privately-owned e-scooters. Using videos of e-scooters’
scooters (e-scooters) are small, single-user, electric vehicles, interactions with pedestrians in traffic, we document some
part of the global boom of urban ‘micro-mobility’ [17], emergent conflicts and co-ordination. This gives us a
which includes a variety of light, individual vehicles, often window on how bustling urban spaces change with the
enabled by technological innovations, such as rental e- introduction of a new transport mode.
bicycles, folding bicycles, hoverboards, or monowheels [53].
They have recently grown in popularity and use worldwide In our discussion, we look at e-scooters not simply as a new
as on-demand rental e-scooters have been deployed (by transport mode, but rather as the start of a potential new wave
companies such as Lime and Bird), in the form of dockless of innovations that blend mobility, electric motors, apps and
mobile devices in new ways. For HCI, this gives us an
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or
classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed opportunity to reflect upon the design of urban mobility
for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation systems, the possibility of inventing new and hybrid systems,
on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM
must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish,
and the impact future systems may have on their users and
to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a public space. This presents an interesting new role for HCI
fee. Request permissions from Permissions@acm.org. to take part in the design of future mobility solutions.
CHI '20, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376759

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BACKGROUND massively worldwide. Using a companion app, users can

While there have been many technology changes ‘under the find, rent, and pay for e-scooters, to use them for short
hood’, in the last 100 years or so our cities’ transport modes journeys. Rental e-scooters have been dockless from the
have stayed more or less the same [54]. Public transit (light beginning, they can be parked and rented from anywhere
rail, metro, bus) and private transit (car, bicycle and foot) are within a particular zone instead of hosted at fixed stations.
stable technologies, and with the exception of buses
replacing streetcars after the second world war, city transport Because they are relatively new, there is little research on e-
in most industrialised countries has remained essentially scooters. Rental companies and research institutes, using
unchanged. Yet the pressing urgency of reducing carbon questionnaires or users’ data, produce reports and surveys
emissions requires radical change in how we use energy, [12,19,59] comprising useful statistical views on this
particularly in high carbon producing economies. Transport developing form of mobility (e.g. [51]) and on users’
produces 27% of European carbon emissions [23], the profiles. Scientists have also calculated the environmental
majority of which comes from road vehicles. While more advantages of e-scooters. They prove to help save carbon
efficient batteries and electric motors present the possibility emission only when they replace automobile travel, which
of moving to cleaner sources of energy, simply placing these seems seldom the case; and their impact is heavily dependent
motors in cars replicates the existing inefficiencies of the on the lifetime of each scooter [40]. The safety of riders has
current system. In urban areas in France, where our case also been discussed [4] and the problem of scooters
study is located, 4 car trips out of 10 are shorter than 3km obstructing public space [49].
[76]. In terms of energy efficiency, it is hard to see how use Transportation Research
of single occupancy vehicles weighing many times the While automotive HCI is an established subfield [21], other
weight of the passenger is sustainable, not to mention the modes of transport, in particular public transport, have
ongoing problems of urban congestion. One hoped-for attracted less attention. There have been a number of well-
development has been ridesharing services (such as Uber), received innovative experiments such as “UbiGreen” [30]
apps that support greater shared vehicle use [33]. While and “Tiramisu” [75], yet HCI research has perhaps neglected
ridesharing has transformed the taxi cab business worldwide, transport beyond the car (with notable exceptions
recent research suggests this has actually if anything made [47,60,71]). While there has been considerable research into
city congestion worse – with users shifting from public ridesharing and app-enabled private transport services, they
transit to ridesharing in private cars [39]. focus mainly on the changes to the driver/labour part [32,62].
Electric vehicles HCI research has also engaged with ways of improving the
At least since the 1980s, there have been a number of bicycling experience [3,24,72].
attempts to innovate with the use of electric motors and Outside HCI, transport studies is of course a large field
vehicle design – in particular the Sinclair C5 and the Segway covering issues of transport and transport policy [13,63].
electric vehicle [64]. But these efforts suffered from low Two interesting topics here, in relation to our study, are the
sales, and at times a less than serious reception. One area of role of shared modes of transport to reduce spatial
success for electric motors has been electrically-assisted inequalities and environmental damage [22], and that of
bicycles, augmented bicycles with small electric motors, digitalisation to develop intermodal practices [15]. These
support bicycling with less physical exertion, to increase perspectives tend to look at systems overall, and end users’
speed and give assistance on hills [14]. This offers a mode of perspectives are relatively absent in transport studies. Social
transport with both health and environmental benefits [26], science research on mobility, on the other hand, has
with research showing that e-bike owners use them more documented travellers’ perspectives [68]. This work
than conventional bike users, with greater health benefits attempts to capture the complex interplay between
[16]. Around the same time as e-bikes were growing in movement, its representation, and the embodied experience,
popularity, a number of cities worldwide have also launched bringing together different experiences of mobility [52].
bike rental systems, from fixed locations where bikes are Cycling has been a particular focus of this work [70], looking
parked when not being used [55], with e-bikes increasingly at cyclists’ interactions with other road users [15], their
being deployed [36]. Despite these efforts, bicycle usage perceptions of safety and the relationship between accident
broadly is still low when contrasted with other modes of rates and exposure to motorised traffic [1], the influence of
transport [25], particularly in the US and Europe. urban infrastructure on the prevalence of urban cycling
Building on much of the same technology, e-scooters use [2,43], shared mobilities schemes [27,29] and their relation
electric motors, but add this to a folding ‘kick scooter’ (not a to intermodal mobility [57].
moped), rather than bicycle. This makes e-scooters Conflicts and public debate around e-scooters
affordable, compact, and transportable on other transport E-scooters have already incited considerable public debate in
modes when folded. However, it is their recent popularity as the general media. The introduction of a new mode of
part of rental services that has perhaps been most striking. In transport has an impact on others users of public space, for
2017, Bird launched a rental service for e-scooters in Santa transport and other uses, and thus changes the very character
Monica, USA [48], and these services have expanded of that public space. As scholarly debate is still emergent on

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this topic, we gained perspective and balanced our study’s the growing gig-economy have been pointed at for increasing
focus on first-person experiences of e-scooter use by social inequalities [79].
reviewing general media discussions. Here we bring in
This brief review of media reports exposes the main problem
media reports so as to give an overview of public debates
concerning rental e-scooters: use of public space,
about the social, spatial, and technological challenges e-
environmental impact, and reliance on gig-economy
scooters pose to non-users and to society at large.
workers. Yet this is balanced by the acknowledgement that
Initial media reports about e-scooter, and in particular e- rental schemes bring a widely appreciated service, and this is
scooter rental schemes, were predominantly positive, why authorities try to regulate rather than ban their use.
referring to the opportunities in a new transit service as well METHODS
as a form of entertainment, for inhabitants and tourists [80]. While there is much public discussion on e-scooters, there is
These early reports compared e-scooters to bicycles and somewhat less data on how they are actually used.
bicycle rental schemes, sometimes through a history of other Understanding user’s experiences can also help improving
transport innovations [48]. Soon after e-scooters’ the design of e-scooters, their related apps, and rental
deployment, however, complaints came from non-users, services. Accordingly, we conducted a video-ethnographic
especially pedestrians feeling yet another infringement on study of e-scooter use in Paris. We chose Paris as a case study
their public space. Public complaints and acts of vandalism, since it was one of the earliest European cities to have rental
drew attention to the problematic consequences of rental e-scooters. They had been deployed in Paris for four months
vehicles [50,78] – unused scooters are left out in the street, at the time of our fieldwork, and they were extremely popular
and users drive irresponsibly. This led to demands that also because October 2018 was particularly warm, making
authorities restrict or even ban these services. The main riding an e-scooter particularly pleasant. This success also
public response has been legal measures, such as creating a showed that Parisians and tourists found in e-scooters
new category of vehicle for e-scooters in traffic rules to be something different from the many and variegated existing
able to ban them from pavements [77]; or negotiating settled transportation modes there. Paris also has a dense population
codes of conduct with the companies who in turn commit to and dense traffic including cars, bicycles, pedestrians,
communicate good practices to their users [81]. But legal mopeds, and so on. The city is not particularly hilly, and has
efforts have also progressed in the other direction, with a particularly dense urban core, making it a suitable city for
Germany recently legalising e-scooters and the UK e-scooter use.
contemplating a similar change [73].
Once problems over the use of public space emerge, the As is typical in HCI we drew upon a mix of ethnographic and
media also begin to question other aspects of e-scooters. qualitative methods with a mix of interviews, observations
They report on safety, rising accident rates, medical experts’ video recordings and first-hand experiences. Our data
experience [83], and the insurance schemes available. comprise 5 weeks of observation in the streets of Paris, 10
Second, criticism of e-scooters’ environmental impact and interviews with e-scooter owners, 10 interviews with users
the companies’ environmental friendliness [42]. Rental e- of rental e-scooters, informal interviews with 10 shop
scooters are said to be less environmentally-friendly than owners, several days observing the work of sales persons in
companies claim, mainly because of their short life-span and an e-scooter shop and their interactions with customers,
the use of motorised vehicles to pick them up and recharge documentary research on media coverage, survey reports and
their batteries every day [40] (although most recently some analyst reports. We recruited our interview participants by
companies have responded either by using only electric approaching customers of e-scooter shops and rental users in
vehicles for pick-up, or installing swappable batteries). The the street, asking them to make a latter appointment for an
main environmental cost of e-scooters as vehicles comes interview. Sixteen out of twenty of our interviewees lived in
from their lithium batteries [40]. Rental companies respond Paris or in the near suburbs, four of them were visiting either
by improving vehicle design and industrial processes so as to as tourists or for work. Men are overrepresented: 18 men and
extend their lifespan and improve the technology. The media 2 women, an imbalance perhaps increased by our recruitment
also have reported on experiences with e-scooter usage: method, but in line with what reports find [12]. Our age
while the use of rental e-scooters replaces more walking than distribution was 11 participants between 25 and 35 years old,
car trips, personal e-scooters have a potential to replace car with only 1 below, and 8 above. All the interviews were
trips, especially by enabling intermodal mobility [57] and conducted in French, except for three in English. We also
thus encouraging the use of public transit even for longer video-recorded three e-scooter rides with the main user
journeys. wearing a head-mounted camera, and one researcher
following them on another e-scooter wearing a chest-
Rental e-scooters are also an emergent industry and a market, mounted camera. Participants for the video-recordings were
with the ever fastest growing start-ups whose business recruited as a follow-up on their being interviewed as users.
strategies and success stories are commented on as role This video data gives us some view on in situ negotiations
models [82]. However, their reliance on on-demand workers for public space, ‘in real time’. All the participants gave their
to recharge their vehicles at night and their contribution to written consent to be audio- or video-recorded, and for

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anonymised transcripts of the data to be reported in scientific foot, but you still have time to appreciate, you’re relaxed,
publications. you’re being carried by the scooter […] It’s super pleasant.
It’s another way of strolling, to discover Paris anew actually.
In this data, we were not looking for statistically (owner, Paris resident)
generalisable points, seeking instead to generate concepts
and understandings of the phenomena, as well as get a grip Besides enjoyment, optimising journey time was a major
on the problems and practices of those being studied. We motivation, to use this form of transport especially for e-
used thematic analysis for the interviews [9]. For video data, scooter owners:
we drew on the perspective of ethnomethodology and But we save time anyway. [With the e-scooter, commuting]
conversation analysis [20,31,74]. Ethnomethodology takes me about the same time [as previously with the moped],
focuses on members’ practices, offering a different considering I do not use the same route, because I use streets
perspective on mobility in that it focuses on the ‘how and usable by non-motorised two-wheelers. In Paris they even
what’ or ‘ethno-methods’ of choosing mobility mode, and of created cycle paths going in the opposite direction in one-
how we move and coordinate with other (mobile) public way streets, so it allows me to cut through, or if I cannot cut
space users. Thus, ethnomethodological, video-based studies through, I use the sidewalk, and there I drive more slowly.
provide a unique view on mobility practices and interactions (owner, Paris resident)
in mobility (e.g., [46,69]).
None of our rental users used a helmet, they felt both that it
RESULTS was the norm and that it would be absurd to carry one around.
First, drawing mainly from interview data, we focus on the On the other hand, most of e-scooter owners did claim to
first-person perspective to discuss the experience of riding an wear a helmet. Helmet use is a complex topic – some studies
e-scooter: how it relates to and contrasts with cycling, the suggesting that the advantages of wearing a helmet, at least
vehicle’s affordances, the main characteristics of rental use, for cyclists, are moderated by other road users treating
and the changes in mobility e-scooters enable. For the last cyclists with helmets more aggressively (the ‘pleltzman’
two sections, we focus on the video data to show how e- effect) [54,72].
scooters are used as a form of hybrid transportation, and we
Cycling and e-scooters
move on to an interactional perspective to show how e-
The lack of effort required in driving an e-scooter makes for
scooters and other public space users coordinate.
much easier usage in contrast to a bicycle, which makes e-
Enjoying and re-discovering the city scooter a more viable mode of transport.
The main experience of scooters is riding through the city.
The enjoyable [11] nature of this form of transport was The e-scooter carries you. You have nothing to do. It takes
mentioned as a major motivation to use e-scooters. There are you uphill. I overtake bicycles. (owner, Paris resident)
many aspects to it: fun, a feeling of freedom and continuous This also means that riders do not sweat, they can ride with
movement, a mix of low effort and the joy of quickly office dress. E-scooters were described as particularly
travelling through the city, at times going around other road manoeuvrable vehicles, which also enhances the feeling of
users. There is the bodily experience of enjoying the safety:
outdoors and feeling the air, unlike in public transport or
cars: Because the e-scooter is smaller [than a bicycle], you can
weave in without being looked upon in ways that wouldn’t
I wanted to try one just to avoid taking the metro, to avoid work with a bicycle. (rental user, Paris resident)
being confined, or taking the car, I wanted to be outdoors.
[…] Honestly when I get out of work I want to be in the open I feel much more responsive than on a bicycle in case of an
air, not to be confined in the underground. (rental user, Paris accident. On a bicycle you’re one body with your bicycle,
resident) you can’t jump away easily, whereas if something happen
you can throw away you scooter, you can get rid of it just by
Coming from my hotel, it was either sitting in the back of an jumping off. (rental user, visitor)
Uber, and the traffic I saw was very bad on the road that runs
parallel to the Seine, or this [the e-scooter]. That’s so much This said, e-scooters and cycling share the need to navigate
more enjoyable because you’re outside, weather is fairly the city in an environment that is more or less designed to
nice today, and you just get to kind of cruise and relax. prioritise motor vehicles on the road, with some sections
(rental user, London resident visiting for work) leaving little space for other road users. Our participants
reported that travelling through the city could at times be
Because they allow much longer distances than by foot and unpleasant, and dangerous. Motor vehicles often drive fast
reach places where no motorized vehicle is allowed, e- and sometimes unpredictably, making it difficult and scary
scooters are also an opportunity to discover the city in for e-scooter riders and cyclists. Moreover, e-scooter users
unprecedented ways, both for tourists and veteran Parisians: are unprotected, there is no ‘crumple zone’, meaning that in
Wandering on an e-scooter in Paris is another way of a collision with a motor vehicle they are likely to be seriously
strolling, actually. You’re certainly a little faster than on harmed. Most of our e-scooter users said this was the reason

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why they regularly rode on the pavements – which was still Or the e-scooter could be gone just a few minutes later:
in a legal grey area at the time of our study, and is now illegal
You never know where they are. They move so fast,
in Paris.
sometimes even you get out of the café, you think you’re
Rental scooters: Spontaneous use, unreliability going to fetch one which is two streets away, and when you
Part of the huge attention e-scooters have attracted has been get there it’s no longer there. So I never plan in advance,
because of the visibility of their use through rental systems, thinking that there’s no point anyway since it will be gone by
using apps combined with cellular GPS units built into the the time I get there. (Paris visitor)
scooters. A number of companies have used this technology
to deploy thousands of scooters (up to 40,000 in Paris in 2019 This means that when considering using a scooter, users have
[84]) and in many more cities. With this system, one can to decide how long they want to spend looking before giving
travel short distances without owning a scooter oneself, and up. Even once found and unlocked, scooters themselves
without a concern for logistics or maintenance. could have low charge or not work, creating another source
of frustration and reason not to rely on rental scooters:
The location of scooters in a city during the day is more or
less determined by the movement of users – users drop off I’ve been willing to try several times and actually it never
scooters when they approach a destination, or when they worked. Either there was no battery left, or I don’t know
encounter a technical problem with the scooter. This means there was a problem with the e-scooter, it didn’t work. (Paris
that scooters move around the city as they are hired, and are resident, about a particular rental company)
sometimes left inoperable. Scooters are charged at night by This partly explains why their use was ‘opportunistic’ – on
self-employed workers hired by the scooter company, in a seeing a scooter while walking, users would hire it and use it
‘gig-economy’ arrangement where they are paid per scooter to get to their destination, if it worked. Sometimes this
charged (again, at the time of our study). The daily collection destination would be another public transport site, or their
of scooters also allows maintenance since the broken ones final destination. At other times having a working scooter
can be kept for repairing. would cause the user to reconfigure their journey – changing
Our participants described their use of rental e-scooters as what public transport they took, or taking the e-scooter all
mostly opportunistic during their travels around the city: the way to the destination. This opportunistic use was not
entirely random; often users would try and take small detours
It's really a matter of spontaneity, they’re everywhere you to come across an e-scooter they saw on the map, or in
know. (Paris resident) identified places. Indeed, e-scooters are often deployed in
I don’t plan this sort of things, I’m more improvising. I clusters which become reliable points participants would
improvise, so if there’s one, all the better, and if I feel like walk past to find a scooter, as part of a plan. But these
using one I take it, otherwise it’s not a big deal, I go on foot. clusters were not stable throughout the day.
(Paris resident) This reliability problem was balanced with e-scooters’ ease
E-scooter use was not planned in advance and therefore of use, cost advantage (at least initially when compared to
rarely used for commuting, but in situations with little time purchasing a e-scooter) and lack of concern for maintenance,
pressure it could be considered in anticipation as an option repair, and even charging. Users can just pick up one and use
besides public transport: it. This lowered ‘barrier to use’ also meant that users got a
sense of how suitable a scooter would be for purchase. All of
On longer trips I actually plan to take a scooter and for our shop owners said that their e-scooter sales boomed with
example when I'm in a pub, before leaving the pub I look rental users deciding to buy one after trial. Most users
where the scooters are to see if I can do it on a scooter or if admitted that renting was relatively expensive,
I do it by metro. (Paris visitor) counterbalanced with the joy of riding:
This usage was shaped by the unpredictability and lack of I think it ends up being more expensive for me than if I used
reliability of rental e-scooters. Since e-scooters continuously the metro, but I don’t care, I accept to sacrifice this money
moved across the city, one could never be sure to find one to be able to move around on e-scooters because the pleasure
where and when needed. Second, if one could be seen close is there. (rental user, Paris visitor)
by through the app, sometimes it was not there at all. The
map could be inaccurate, or the e-scooter impossible to find On the other hand, while the influence of renting on driving
because the previous user had hidden it or taken it into their practices remains understudied, some rental users admitted
courtyard or flat: to driving faster because rental was paid by the minute:

It has happened to us several times to walk about thirty Most of the time I use the road. I feel more comfortable on
minutes and there was nothing. Really it was there, and in the road, I can go faster, there are many people on
fact we realised that the person had taken it straight to her pavements, all the more considering that you pay by the
balcony. We could see above the Lime up on the guy’s minute, it’s metering system, so you have to be quite fast.
balcony. (Paris resident) (rental user, Paris resident)

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While our interviews lead us to take a user perspective, it is Another interesting comment about e-scooters concerns their
important to point out that rental e-scooters, at the time of utility in a very congested city. At rush hour, many large
our study and onwards, suffered from major problems of cities are saturated in all their forms of transport – car, bus,
parking, with mis-parked scooters having a particularly train. Because of because of the high demands put on transit
negative effect on the accessibility of public space. and the problems of an ‘at capacity’ system, breakdowns
happen very frequently, causing cascading delays for users.
Intermodal transport: “hacking the city”
Discussion around new transit methods often focuses on For these reasons, travelling around Paris not always smooth
whether its use substitutes for an existing mode (such as or easy, so that using an e-scooter allows a sort of ‘hack’ by
taking a taxi rather than a bus) or transforms practices in squeezing between the existing saturated transport methods.
more depth [37]. Some of our participants, e-scooter owners, While the city is saturated with various modes of transport,
exclusively travelled around the city with the scooter almost this one manages to squeeze itself inside:
completely replacing their reliance on public transport. But But the nice thing with the scooter is when you’re in time
around half of them combined e-scooter with other transport pressure and you’re in an Uber and you get stuck in traffic
modes. E-scooter use then ‘reshuffled’ their transportation because there’s something you don’t know up ahead, it gets
practices in a variety of ways, enabling new types of very stressful cause you can’t do anything. Whereas on that,
‘intermodal’ transport [66] – the combination of different you’re pretty much sure, you’re like OK cool, that’s gonna
transport modes in one journey. This opened up new routes take me this amount of time and there won’t be many detours.
and journeys that would have been inefficient or (rental user, Paris visitor)
impracticable without e-scooters.
For some of our more enthusiastic users, their scooter
A simple but important feature of e-scooters is that they can completely replaced their reliance on a personal, motorised
be folded up through a hinge, which made them relatively vehicle. While it seems fair that we found only few cases of
compact and portable. Users could then carry their vehicle scooters replacing car travel (considering the existing heavy
onto public transport: constraints on car travel in Paris already) one participant
gave up on using the moped when hers broke, and now uses
So I fold it. When I get to the metro, I get off, I still don’t use only her e-scooter to travel inside Paris. Another participant
it, I keep it folded, I take the RER [Paris railway network], avoided buying a new car by riding his e-scooter to the
RER, I still keep it folded. At Châtelet I take the RER B, then station which, by foot, used to be too far from his home:
I get off at Cité Universitaire. From there on I have nothing
to do apart from going downhill. I switch off the engine I don’t own a car anymore, because now that I have the
because it’s useless, On the way back very often there are scooter, since the RER or the Transilien are in general quite
problems on the RER B, on evenings it’s very recurrent. So punctual, it works for me. Since I’ve had it, I leave a little
then sometimes I have to go to the 14th to try and get as fast later and I arrive at work on time, so that’s quite an
as possible to a metro station that will take me as close as advantage. (owner, resident in the suburbs)
possible to Châtelet. Then I take the metro, I get to Mairie Lastly, an additional advantage of e-scooters being foldable,
des Lilas, and there if the bus comes and it’s not packed, no besides enabling intermodal transport, is that they can be
need to turn on the e-scooter, I get home with the bus. If the easily carried up stairs, and kept indoors even in small flats.
bus is packed, if I have to wait 14 to 20 minutes for the next Stored indoors, e-scooters can be plugged and left to charge
one, I leave [using the e-scooter]. with no cost other than electricity itself; and they are
Rental users described how they created new, intermodal preserved from theft or vandalism:
routes, for example using a faster train line that was usually You can fold it, put it at home in a cupboard, a cellar,
too far away from their destination or starting point. They anywhere. It really is a considerable advantage, when you
used the rental scheme for the first or last kilometres or think about it. Because bicycles in Paris are a hassle, a real
hundreds of meters: hassle, they get stolen all the time, and if not the bicycle,
I use the scooters to make connections to the subway. pieces of the bicycle, all the time. (owner, Paris resident)
Basically it's line 13, but I try to take it as late as possible. Is Scooter as hybrid transport: Pedestrian, car or bicycle
use the scooter to shorten the metro trip as much as possible, Our participants would often compare riding the e-scooter to
to avoid connections. (rental user, Paris resident). other forms of transport: they can be ridden in bicycle lanes
E-scooters were mentioned as a successor of bike-sharing like bicycles, on the road in traffic like cars; they can be
schemes: pushed alongside to walk on pavements with pedestrians,
and they can be folded and carried on foot to take public
I used to walk to line 13 directly. Then I did it with the Vélib transportations. In terms of design, e-scooters indeed
[Paris’ public docked rental bicycle scheme], then I did it combine aspects of these: their top speed is close to that of a
with the free-floating bikes, and now I do it with the scooters. car in traffic, their size and shape resemble those of a bicycle,
(rental user, Paris resident) and they can be walked with as a pedestrian. This led us to
characterise e-scooter as ‘hybrid’: they combine features of

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other transport modes, and, relying on the former, they can one’s actions can be scrutinised and judged by others. That
be used in different ways according to the situation. In other is to say, actions are ‘accountable’ to others [34]. When she
words, users can ‘transform’ from one mode to another as walks and pushes her e-scooter along, Christine is visible not
they adjust to the situation, through road positioning (driving as a road user going through a red light, but as a pedestrian
close to the curb or more in the road), folding up the scooter walking across the road. Goffman called this “body gloss” –
and carrying it, or getting off the scooter and pushing the the embodied, visible way in which we convey certain
scooter alongside. information in public, where we control how we are seen by
others. In this case Christine’s movements are seen as ‘like a
One example of this ‘hybridity’ is in jumping red lights or
pedestrian’, not ‘like a car’ obligation not to convey other
using the pavement. We observed in our video data that e-
impressions [35]. With this change of body gloss, Christine
scooter users approaching a red light, instead of stopping or
is no longer accountable as a road user but as a pedestrian,
simply go through the red light, could jump off their scooter
and thus she is not really breaking the rules.
and push it through the crossing. Dismounting exactly when
they cross the red light boundary, they become pedestrians, Figure 2 involves a similar practice, but for different
albeit pushing a scooter. At some point, when the way is purposes and with a lesser concern for appearance. Vincent
clear, they jump back on the scooter and drive off again. is using the bus lane which is also the cycle-lane, driving in
In Figure 1, we follow Christine (a pseudonym) on her the centre of Paris. He approaches a red traffic light while
morning commute, a route she knows in every detail. Driving pedestrians for whom the light is green are crossing the road
on the right side of the road like a bicycle, she approaches a (the coincidental presence of two other scooters reflects their
red light (Figure 1.1). Christine slows down as she popularity in Paris at the time).
approaches the red light, and exactly as she reaches the
boundary, she sets her left foot off the platform while turning
her head to the right. In an uninterrupted movement, she sets
her right foot off the board too and starts walking, pushing
the e-scooter alongside. With her head turned to the right, she
monitors the potential coming of cars, showing that she may
still have to give way, and is ready to. Shortly after, having
secured the way as cleared and safe, she turns her head to the
road ahead and continues walking. As she gets near the end
of the intersection, she climbs on the scooter again and
resumes her motorised journey.

Figure 2: from scooter to pedestrian to walk on pavement

Vincent slows down as he approaches the red light and
dismounts. Like Christine, with no pause whatsoever, he
starts walking pushing his vehicle along. But instead of
walking past the zebra crossing to continue on the road the
way Christine did, he swerves to the left, and walks along the
zebra crossing with the crossing pedestrians. As he reaches
the other side of the road, he climbs on the pavement and
Figure 1: from scooter to pedestrian at the red light
mingles among pedestrians. In the interview, Vincent
Unlike bicycles, e-scooters are stable at low speed, and explained he did it in order to take a route impossible as a
therefore Christine does not need to dismount, she could road user. In our discussions about travelling on the
simply slide through the red light slowly as bicycles pavement, nearly all our e-scooter users admitted resorting
sometimes do. But what matters and why she dismounts is to driving on the pavement to make their way around
how she appears to others present around her – cars stopped obstructions. Since this is less common for bicyclists, one
at the traffic light, bystanders on the porch a few meters possibility might be that a scooter on the pavement is closer
away, or even the researcher following and filming her. in form to a pedestrian. As one participant put it:
Through her conduct, she orients to the accountability of her
actions [65]: public space is one of constant visibility where

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On an e-scooter you’re not exactly a pedestrian, and you’re and she says “You have nothing to do on the pavement.” (e-
not exactly motorised. You end up in a grey area, and in the scooter owner)
absence of a strict legislation, you allow yourself some things
Our videos of scooter users give us some insight into cases
you [wouldn’t normally]. When you stop at a traffic light on
where e-scooter’s and pedestrians’ trajectories coincide, and
an e-scooter, you wonder why you’re stopping (Owner)
how they quickly negotiate ways. In Figure 3, a pedestrian is
E-scooters could also emphasise their similarity to other speaking on their phone and starts to cross the road from the
types of road user. Our participants tended to take a similar opposite pavement, in front of our e-scooter rider. When he
position as bicycles – either in a cycle-lane if it was available, is about two meters away from the rider (in the cycle-lane),
or over to the side of the road near the pavement. But in both and walking directly towards him, the man still looks down.
cases, they would encounter cyclists and sometimes overtook The rider slows down even more, visibly expecting that the
them, being faster than them. To do so when driving on the man on the phone might simply continue, and giving him
right side of the road, they could swing themselves out into way. But while he takes one more step, the pedestrian raises
the road and thereby take the position where a car would his gaze and then stops dead with his left foot on the cycle-
normally drive. In these situations, therefore, they could be lane marking. During this step, as the angle of the camera
said to be taking on the position of a car. Even when they shows, the rider turns his head to the man, with the pedestrian
were not overtaking, e-scooter users could drive into the maintaining his gaze. The combination of stopping and
centre of a lane like cars again, when they felt at risk driving looking is responded to as giving way, and the scooter rider
on the side of the road. This was especially the case when takes the offer by accelerating and passing on the right.
they felt pedestrians could step down unpredictably, when
people from parked cars could open their doors without
looking behind; or in order to block cars coming from behind
from overtaking them because it felt dangerous.
In sum, these ‘transformations’ captured the hybrid nature of
e-scooters, their flexibility, from motorised vehicle to
pedestrian and from bicycle-like to car-like vehicle in under
a second, according to road conditions and travelling speed.
Negotiating the way with other public space users
As we discussed above when reviewing media reports of e-
scooter use, one area of considerable controversy is their
conduct in public space. The media has extensively reported
on pedestrians disgruntled by e-scooters jostling them on
pavements or going through lights and zebra crossings at full
speed. One can also see this major conflict as ‘normal
troubles’ when a new technology enters the field - growing
pains, of a sort. Since e-scooters are relatively recent, other
road users may not have good expectations of how and where Figure 3: pedestrian giving way to e-scooter
they would move; and second, because they are not identified
as a particular type of vehicle, other road users have no prior There is a sort of ‘double take’ where the pedestrian notices
code of conduct to refer to, they don’t know which sets of the scooter and stops walking and stares. This makes visible
rights and obligations should apply: that the pedestrian has now seen the rider, but also that his
first concern is to avoid any collisions. Our rider takes this as
We are less visible, also, to pedestrians […] as something a sign he can proceed to the right of the pedestrian (crossing
which doesn’t make noise, moving forward, vertical, like a his path) making use of the pedestrians’ stop to ‘go first’.
stick moving forward, I think we’re much less visible than
bicycles. […] Pedestrians just see another pedestrian In Figure 4, the same rider, still in the cycle-lane, is turning
coming. In the corner of their eyes, in their field of vision, round a corner. As he does so, a pedestrian coming from the
they see someone standing, they don’t necessarily see opposite pavement enters a zebra crossing, walking slowly
someone standing and moving forward. (Rental user) and looking down. The e-scooter rider slows down. As they
are about 4 meters from each other, the pedestrian stares at
Several of our participants talked about pedestrians’ the scooter, marking not only his surprise but also
prejudice against them, and the gratuitous attacks they faced: appreciating the situation as potentially dangerous, towards
I was not going anywhere, just strolling really [on the imminent collision. But shortly after, he resumes walking as
pavement] at 7km/h or so. And there, an old woman ahead before and turns his head away. As he walks past the cycle-
of me as she sees me come to her raises her cane in the air lane marking, he visibly hurries his steps to get out of the
blocking my way. I don’t say anything, and the moment I go scooter’s way. Through his “moral quickstep” [69], a way of
by she pushes me. She pushes me, you know! So I look at her, accelerating the pace as a public demonstration more than a

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practical purpose, the pedestrian shows he appreciates the importance of studying the ‘user experience’ of transport in
offer, does not take advantage of it, and somehow different ways, and how HCI can shed light on the value of
reciprocates [44]. In Figure 4, Vincent had slowed down individual mobility experiences.
almost to the point of stopping, but he can accelerate once New opportunities around new mobilities
the pedestrian has jumped on the pavement. These two clips We urgently need to reduce our carbon dependency, and
capture some of the emergent negotiations that take place many authors have identified motor-vehicle dependency as a
between pedestrians and scooter users on the road. In both key part of this. While cars are likely to be part of our
cases there is an element of conflict, in at least the sense of a transport systems for some time, HCI has potential for an
shared stare between road users, a suspension of ‘civil expanded role exploring mobility innovations that go beyond
inattention’ [34] usually given between road users. current transport offerings. As our study has documented
(alongside similar work on app-based mobility services [33])
transport now depends upon apps and software as well as
physical mobility. E-scooter rental requires apps and
networked scooters to be able to work. This makes
transportation an increasingly relevant HCI topic. Indeed,
under the banner of ‘urban infomatics’, Foth and colleagues
[28] have discussed a range of interesting new technological
concepts around non-car transport, city design and software.
This connects directly with the increasing interest in an HCI
that can work with broader ‘matters of concern’ and digital
civics [7,62].
One aligned concept here is that of ‘mobility as a service’
[41], which has gained considerable traction amongst public
transport providers, promoting idea about how apps,
payment and systems can work to better combine different
transport modes. A number of app-based services have
Figure 4: pedestrian taking rights of way attempted to combine various transport providers, transport
information, calculations of optimal intermodal journeys
DISCUSSION adjusted in real-time, and payment, merging data from
Our study has reported on both privately-owned and rental e- various providers [ibid].
scooter use. After discussing the enjoyment of e-scooter
riding, we reviewed how e-scooters support new forms of Our data suggests that introducing e-scooters to these
intermodal transport, and how owned and rental scooters are services could create interesting new opportunities. For
used in different ways. Focusing on the videos, we then example, scooters could let users jump between different
reported on the ‘hybrid’ nature of e-scooters, where they can transport modes more effectively. Existing transport
combine the properties of other modes of transport; and we networks often suffer from ‘gaps’, such as when two train
considered some of the potential conflicts between e- stations are close but there is no easy public transport
scooters users and other road users. between them, and e-scooters might be one way of filling in
these gaps at a massively lower cost than building physical
In discussion, we consider two areas of relevance for HCI. infrastructure. Such systems could also help in cases of
The first is to consider how HCI can contribute to designing transport failure, potentially adapting to actual conditions in
new transport systems, in particular through inventing new real time, for example by quickly deploying e-scooters to
mobility services. While this has not been traditionally an alleviate disrupted transit connections.
area of much HCI research, pressing environmental issues
promote the urgency of finding new solutions here. With regard to e-scooter rental, there are also interesting new
Moreover, as discussed above, the experience of complex possibilities. Different payment solutions could support
transport networks is increasingly produced as much through commuters who need to use e-scooters regularly (such as
app-based systems as the transport means itself. integrating with existing public transit passes). There may
also be intermediate arrangements between purchasing a
Second, we discuss the potential of HCI to contribute to scooter and renting a scooter that could be offered. It is also
vehicle design. One exciting development in micro-mobility worth considering how sharing schemes (rather than rental)
is how it opens up the physical design of transport systems, could work. Communities of neighbours, for example, could
aspects that have long been closed [6]. These aspects of own scooters together and benefit from specific software
design are not only tied to efficiency or practicality, but also assisting them to organise timetables and manage vehicle
to how vehicles are seen in traffic with others, as well as maintenance, thus supporting innovative, sustainable forms
more broadly how they engage with users’ practices – points of shared micro-mobility.
where HCI can productively engage. This underlies the

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Vehicle design and opportunities for HCI More broadly, we would argue for HCI’s role in
It is important to think of the e-scooter not as an ‘end point’ understanding user experience of transport over the
but as something still developing. Commercially there is still viewpoints of infrastructure providers. HCI has a powerful
considerable experimentation with new types of e-scooter design research role to play here in bringing the user into the
design [38,56]. There are, for examples, vehicles that can transit design process more broadly. This connects with the
carry cargo more than one person, or support those with growing importance of sustainability. For example, while
disabilities better. Ongoing improvements in the technology transport route choice is a complex issue, it may increasingly
are also likely to answer some of the criticisms over become forced because of environmental urgency. One
obsolescence and sustainability. So, while e-scooters are research direction here is to question how route choice is
interesting in their own right, they should be seen as part of presented, and how different techniques might encourage
a quickly developing family of technological innovations more carbon-friendly modes of transport. One connection
around individual electric transportation. E-scooters ‘open point that can help these discussions is social science field of
up’ a new design space around personal vehicles that has mobility studies, a field that shares HCI interest in user
been closed for a very long time [6]. experiences, although one so far with few overlaps (cf
From this we can draw a host of interesting directions and [45,58]).
ways in which HCI can contribute. We do not have the space CONCLUSION
here for a full design process around micro-mobility, rather This paper has taken an ethnographic approach to understand
the contribution of our work is to provide an understanding e-scooters as a novel vehicle with the potential to reshape
of the user impact of different electric vehicles on those cities and everyday transport. An exploration of users’
travelling, and the decisions they make. Individual electric experience confronted with the controversy occasioned by
vehicles – be it scooters, e-bikes, single person electric cars rental schemes point to an opportunity for HCI to not only
– have interactional (between road users) as well as practical design interfaces at an individual level, but also contribute to
(effort, manoeuvrability, foldability) impacts. An important larger societal change by re-designing transportation modes.
HCI contribution then is to provide an empirical background More broadly, we are hopeful for the opportunity to think
to inform design processes seeking to develop this in about HCI’s role in contributing to new mobilities and new
different ways. For example, one could try and expand on e- ways of designing, and travelling through, urban spaces.
scooters’ ergonomic, practical and social features; combine ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
them with features of electric bicycles; or try to transfer their We would like to acknowledge our participants, Christian
hybrid nature to other forms of transport. This gives a Licoppe for his support during fieldwork and his contribution
distinctly HCI contribution to understanding user values and to the analyses, as well as our close colleagues in Stockholm
perspectives in the design process of creating new hybrid for their constant help throughout the research and writing.
transport forms. We acknowledge the support of the Swedish Foundation for
Alongside the design of the vehicle itself, there are also Strategic Research, project RIT15- 0046.
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