Four-year trends of personal mobility devices in metropolitan vancouver: The evolution of mode shares, speeds, and comfort in off-street paths

Amir Hassanpour and Alexander Bigazzi

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2025, vol. 199, issue C

Abstract: Personal Mobility Devices (PMD) such as (e-)bicycles, (e-)scooters, and (e-)skateboards are increasingly popular for urban travel, which poses challenges in the constrained spaces of cycling facilities and multi-use paths. This study investigates changes in the mode shares and speeds of PMD over 4 years (2019–2023) in metropolitan Vancouver, Canada and their implications for traveller comfort. Classified count and speed data of PMD were collected at 12 sampling locations in the summer of 2023. Those data were combined with similar count and speed data and survey data collected at the same locations in 2019 and 2020. Results show that the mode share of conventional bicycles decreased from 91% to 74%, while electric bicycles increased from 4.5% to 16.4% and stand-up electric scooters increased from 0.4% to 4.2%. Overall mean speed in cycling facilities and multi-use paths increased by 11% (2 km/hr). Controlling for contextual factors, electric and conventional bicycle speeds converged, while electric skateboard and self-balancing unicycle speeds increased by 4 km/hr and 10 km/hr, respectively. These changes reduce comfort, but the average path user remains moderately comfortable with most PMD encountered on off-street paths. Study implications include lower volume thresholds for separated versus multi-use paths, monitoring of PMD speeds, and restrictions on high-speed PMD.

Keywords: Micromobility; Electric assist; Mode share; Speed; Comfort; Shared space (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2025.104554

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