E-scooter micromobility systems: Review of attributes and impacts

Impact evaluation has become one of the core objectives of the transport sector worldwide towards improving its sustainability performance. This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the impacts in the field of escooter services. A systematic literature review is conducted on scientific peered- review journal publications in the English language. Thirty-eight studies are considered; for which a database is built that includes e-scooter attributes, such as service type (i.e., docked or dockless), infrastructure (i.e., dedicated lanes) and role (i.e., competing or complementary to public transport), key performance indicators and measured impacts by considering empirical and simulated data. KPIs are organized into five dominant impact areas for e-scooters: (1) Environment, (2) Society-Users, (3) Economy, (4) Transport performance, and (5) Safety. More than hundred KPIs are recorded with the most frequently used ones to refer to emissions, modal shift and accidents. The review concludes that the community goals should lead the selection of the e-scooter type and role within the transport system, since e-scooter attributes contribute towards different impacts. Future research should aim to the development of methods and tools for estimating e-scooter impacts and to the investigation of the relationship between user characteristics, impacts and e-scooter attributes.