The opportunities for urban micro mobility are growing by the day. Between shared and private scooters and bicycles, more and more Spaniards decide to choose these alternatives for their city trips.
There are a few reasons why they have become so popular;
- to save money, especially now that fuel prices have risen so much
- because of comfort and speed
- because of a responsibility to the environment
According to a survey by the provider Tier Mobility, 30% of Spaniards use micro mobility vehicles for journeys in the city, which means that Spain is the European country with the highest percentage of micro mobility users.
Madrid is the European city with the highest percentage of urban mobility users. 43% of residents say they actively use this type of vehicle. And, furthermore 38% of those surveyed say they would like to use micro mobility products and services to get around.
Spaniards’ willingness to switch is high
According to the survey, Spain is the country where most citizens would like to use electric scooters (19%) and electric bikes (16%) as an alternative to combustion engine vehicles. 26% of those surveyed said they would be prepared to do without combustion cars in exchange for these types of micro mobility alternatives. However, Spaniards are still second only to Poles in terms of car ownership per capita. Here, a whopping 76% of people own their own car.
The study analysed mobility habits in 36 cities across 14 European countries. Spain is followed by Italy and France, with 28% and 25% respectively, in the use of urban micro-mobility. Italians (25%) and French (24%) are also willing to park their private car, while users are least willing at 11% in the UK.
Electric scooter
After Poland, Spain is the second most popular country in Europe for electric scooters. Scooter riders see ease of use as one of the most important benefits, according to 53% of those surveyed. 50% mentions the comfort, 49% of the interviewees mentions the user costs as a reason for using the scooter. On the other hand, Spaniards are the Europeans most concerned about safety when using these ‘vehículos de movilidad personal’ or VMPs (36% of respondents confirm this), followed by Finns (29%) and Brits (26%).
The main concern is the lack of protection of these vehicles from other road traffic (75%), followed by the lack of proper infrastructure for integrated urban traffic (64%) and the lack of knowledge of the rules and regulations (49%).
