Steve Rogerson looks at how Nottingham is planning a joined-up transport system starting with the reintroduction of e-scooters.

The rise of micromobility – e-bikes, e-scooters and so on – has perhaps been one of the most controversial elements of the move towards smart cities. At first glance, it all seems very logical; for a city to be truly smart it needs a joined-up transportation systems right down to the last few metres.

Microcmobility plays an important role in that. Trains, trams and buses, even robotaxis, are all key elements, but what about that journey across a pedestrianised city centre? Here, cheap rentable electric bikes and scooters seemed the obvious answer, and they have had varying degrees of success around the world.

Their arrival though has not been universally welcomed. Pedestrians, the ones for whom pedestrianised zones were designed, have not been overly happy at e-bikes and e-scooters weaving their way through crowds of walking people, often carrying shopping or having their own mobility problems. Incidences of people being injured by these have been on the rise and prompted many local councils to rethink their strategies.

I mentioned in a previous blog (www.iotm2mcouncil.org/iot-library/articles/technology/what-makes-singapore-so-smart) how Singapore four years ago banned powered mobility devices on footpaths. That is probably a little extreme, but something does need to be done.

In my own city of Nottingham in the UK, for e-scooters – not e-bikes – this was taken out of their hands when the e-scooter operator being used – SuperPedestrian – went out of business. Overnight, the contraptions disappeared and you could almost hear the collected sigh of relief at not seeing piles of abandoned e-scooters littering the streets.

That was until an announcement (www.mynottinghamnews.co.uk/e-scooters-will-return-to-nottingham-as-dott-announced-as-new-operator) this year that the e-scooters will be returning this spring. The announcement says that “key lessons” have been learnt from the previous trials, especially around parking. The provider this time will be Dott; its rival Lime (www.li.me) runs the rented e-bikes in the city.

I caught up this week with Iqbal Ahmed, who is Dott’s head of public policy for the UK and Ireland, to find out exactly what lessons have been learnt and how this new trial will be different.

“One way we can improve the service is to make sure the riders behave responsibly,” he told me. Well true, but that is easier said than done. In fairness, Dott will be running training options, including a mandatory onboarding quiz and forced reduced speed for new riders.

The e-scooters will use GPS to pinpoint their position and be fitted with a Twilio (www.twilio.com) SIM card and communicate using IoT technology from Wireless Logic (wirelesslogic.com) subsidiary Datamobile (datamobile.ag). This will let Dott also restrict speed in certain pedestrianised areas.

“We can detect if an e-scooter is where it is supposed to be,” said Iqbal. “We can thus implement no-go areas where the e-scooter stops if it enters them or has a lower speed limit to make it safer for other road users.”

He said they were still discussing with the council where these zones would be, but said one would be along the towpath of the canal that runs through Nottingham.

One exciting development due to come later this year will see Nottingham join with neighbouring city Derby to have a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) app that will allow users to plan and book their journeys using public transport, e-bike and e-scooter hire, taxis, car parking, vehicle charging, and so on. This will be a staged introduction starting this spring, and details can be found at www.transportnottingham.com/article/future-transport-zones.

Iqbal said Dott (ridedott.com) would be part of this, and acknowledged it would involve working with rival Lime.

“We work with Lime in many markets and have a good relationship with them,” he said. “We even run joint learning campaigns.”

I must admit, after that conversation, I am a little more optimistic about the reintroduction of e-scooters in Nottingham, and I hope that optimism won’t be dashed by one of them knocking me over, and that, the next time I write about this, it won’t be from a hospital bed with my leg in a cast. Happy riding!