City Dwellers Increasingly Want Electric Bikes and Scooters

(Bloomberg Markets) -- How do you get around the city?

More than half of the world’s 7.7 billion people live in urban areas. The United Nations says 2.5 billion more people could join them by 2050. That means traffic and congestion fees. For many of the short trips city dwellers make, cars aren’t necessary or practical. Which explains the boom in bikes and scooters, privately owned or shared. A growing number are electric.

“We’re seeing a tremendous push, enabled by venture capital but not always, to spread and sprinkle around the world hundreds of millions of potential vehicles,” Horace Dediu, founder of research firm Asymco, said at the BloombergNEF San Francisco event this year. “Once they’re available, the bet of micromobility is that they will be picked up and used.”

One luxury option is the foldable Gocycle, created by a former designer for the race car maker McLaren. The GX model, pictured here on a Berlin street, allows the rider to customize how much pedaling assistance the motor provides.

Just remember your helmet.

For BNEF research on micromobility, type “NSE micromobility in wire: BNEF” and hit .

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