A new study published by DePaul University in Downtown Chicago has found some interesting data as it pertains to e-scooters and their effectiveness for trips over the Chicago Transit Authority’s train system.
According to researchers,residents of apartment buildings in Downtown Chicago like AMLI or The Streeter are better off taking e-scooters to work if their trip is less than three miles away. If someone lives in one of these furnished rentals but works more than three miles away from it,experts say that person should instead use the city of Chicago’s highly-respected public transportation system to get where they need to go.
The Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development study says that e-scooters are a highly efficient way to travel short distance in the city. E-scooters resemble normal push scooters but feature a motor on the back. While slower than traditional bicycles,many say they could become as ubiquitous as Divvy bikes,the city’s bikeshare of choice.
“We’ve done some studies on Divvy,on ride sharing,even congestion. Then dockless bikes came,and they’re not necessarily leaving,but that was the hot issue last year,” says Dr. Scott Smith,one of the assistant directors at Chaddick.
As bikeshare and scootershare programs have gotten more popular across the country,researchers have spent countless hours studying the effectiveness of such programs and whether or not they should be adopted even more than they are now. A few of the factors researchers look at when comparing how share services stack up against cars are travel time,convenience and reliability.
Many of Chicago’s most popular neighborhoods for temporary housing and restaurants were also studied by DePaul,including The Loop,Lincoln Park and Streeterville. After simulating 10,000 trips across various neighborhoods,researchers felt they had enough data to go on to come to some important conclusions.