Shared Electric Scooter Pilot Program

2019 Pilot Overview

In 2019, the Town of Brookline operated Massachusetts' first Shared Electric Scooter Program in order to determine whether Shared Electric Scooters contribute to the Town’s mobility, equity, safety, and climate action goals. Over an 8 month period, participants traveled 191,855 miles over 188,926 trips on Bird, Lime, or Spin scooters. In order to manage the system and track important data points, the Town partnered with Populus to use their Mobility Manager, to access and track data and information that helped deliver a safe, equitable, and sustainable transportation program.

Summary of the Pilot Program (Presentation to the New England Parking Council)

Populus Mobility Evaluation Survey

What is a Shared Electric Scooter?

Shared Electric Scooters, also known as e-scooters, are an emerging technology and shared mobility service. The first systems in the U.S. launched in 2017. Similar to bikeshare, the service provides personal transportation to rent for one-way trips. To begin a rental companies typically require customers to download an app or text a number to unlock the device. To end a trip, customers park the scooter in the service area in the furniture zone out of the way of pedestrian traffic on sidewalks. The scooters typically do not lock to anything.

Electric scooters are powered exclusively by an electric motor and in Brookline companies were required to cap the maximum speed at 15 MPH.