Title
Scooter Share Equity Report: Providence, RI
Author(s)
Description
In late 2018, the City of Providence began allowing scooter share companies to operate within their city and to provide alternative forms of transportation to their population. These scooter share companies are required to uphold certain distribution requirements within the five geographical regions of the city: downtown, east side, south side, north west, and west. The system has definitely changed over time. From August 2018 to October 2019, Bird and Lime were the primary scooter providers to the city. They were later replaced by Spin and Veoride. In general, all providers increased their scooter deployments over time and saw an increase ridership as a result. It is clear, however, that each provider expanded their services to meet the needs of each region quite differently. This is evident in how fleet size differs across each region over time. In this paper, we discuss our study of the equity of access to scooter share services in Providence. We work with the City to investigate how ridership, coverage, and service vary across the region to identify underserved communities. Further, we analyze sociodemographic factors from 2018 census data to put these patterns into context.
Date Published
2020-10-27