Who hasn't seen them rigorously darting along sidewalks or cycle paths, rarely parked in an Orthodox way or huddled in the once free areas of any downtown square? They are electric scooters, a trend that exploded during the lockdown and grew precisely because many prefer to travel on their own or shared (for a fee) vehicle rather than in the crowds of buses and subways. They are not alone, the scooters. In these two years of the pandemic, the use of bicycles, including electric ones, and that of electric scooters has consolidated thanks to sharing services (on the sales front, however, the balance is negative).

All this responds to the name of micromobility and is a trend in decisive ascent, not only for us, as certified by the data of the National Observatory on Sharing Mobility (registrations for shared mobility services in Italy have reached 5.6 million, with 158 sharing services active in 49 cities, triple compared to 2015; almost 90 thousand vehicles shared between cars, scooters, bicycles and scooters), but all over the world struggling with the risks of the Omicron variant.

The majority of micro-mobility trips (11%) take place in free time and another 11% represent business transfers. The road, however, seems to be marked. According to the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility, which surveyed 6,000 people in China, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States in July 2021, nearly 70% of respondents are willing to use micro-mobility vehicles for their journeys. The Italians would seem even further ahead: 81%. But the most sensational figure is that according to McKinsey estimates, spending on micro-mobility will be between 300 and 500 billion dollars by 2030, mainly thanks to emerging countries.

"There are three obstacles to the spread of micromobility - comments Michele Bertoncello, McKinsey partner - a still high accident rate (the recent Infrastructure decree postponed both the obligation to insure RC and helmet, ed), the climate and greater education of citizens to use forms of transport that reduce congestion and pollution ». Another issue is ensuring the full integration of public transport. «Consumers - concludes Bertoncello - are looking for a stress-free, predictable and reliable mobility experience. If they are unable to know for sure whether they will find an e-bike or scooter when they arrive at a bus or subway station they become more skeptical about possibility of using micro-mobility for professional reasons. Because they are not willing to risk being late ».