Madrid Is Trying Out E-Scooters in Its Quest to Beat Traffic
The city has 5,000 Vespa-style bikes on the streets as operators use it as a testing ground.
Growing up, Javier Asensio rode the bus to school and around town on weekends. Then, when car-sharing arrived in Madrid a few years ago, he started driving more frequently. But for the past year he’s shifted to another option: electric scooters in a rainbow of bright colors available across the city. “Scooters are by far my first choice,” says the 27-year-old management consultant. “Traffic and parking are easy, and I love riding them.”
A half-dozen companies have flooded Madrid with electric versions of Vespa-type sit-down scooters. Riders pick them up and drop them off anywhere in the city center and surrounding areas, paying about 25¢ per minute. They’re booked and billed via a smartphone app, which can guide users to the nearest bike, track how long they’ve been riding, and e-mail a bill moments after they park. The city has about 5,000 scooters, up fivefold from a year ago—the world’s biggest fleet, says Enrico Howe, an analyst at mobility consulting firm MotionTag. Madrid is “the capital of scooter-sharing globally,” he says.