Bike sharing’s got nothing on them.
Obike, alongside a couple other renowned bike-sharing companies, had recently broken into the Singapore market early this year. Apart from backlashes in the beginning, the bike-sharing initiatives have thus far been pretty well-received.
Being readily available quite literally everywhere, you can’t go more than 100 meters without spotting a herd of them on a roadside.
Well, better not get too comfortable with these bikes as PopScoot will be mainstreaming e-scooter sharing in the coming months.
Having already launched the project around ManuLife Centre, Republic Plaza, Tiong Bahru Plaza and City Square Mall, the Singapore-based company will be popularizing this mean of transport in downtown and heartland as early as September 2017.
At a mere $4 an hour, you get the luxury of sweat-free commuting.
In comparison to the former; at $2 an hour, the difference is significant but definitely not unaffordable.
Be it the walk-of-shame to your lunch spot under the unforgiving sun or the 5-minute walk to the nearest MRT station, you don’t always want to be cycling and turning a short trip into an unintended workout session.
Whilst making trips that are neither too far to take a public transport nor too near to walk, the idea of travelling with an e-scooter sounds beyond alleviating without the hassle of going through a mini-workout.
If they are as readily available that is.
An e-scooter on the market costs on average about $400, a cost that is definitely marginal if largely produced and made available. Not to mention with Singaporean’s tainted record on handling shared bicycles, the company ought to be prepared for a substantial overhaul fee. Being a more costly equipment as compared to a bicycle, there’s no doubt some of us fear for and are already cringing at the mental image of a trashed e-scooter in a canal.
Well, while we can’t foresee what’s going to happen to the e-scooters, PopScoot has also modelled after their predecessors and implemented the deposit system to mitigate the possibility of vandalism. In-built GPS system and dedicated docking to park the vehicles means they are able to have a solid foothold on prosecuting any mischievous acts.
Let’s have a little faith and pretend that all Singaporeans are gracious and appreciative for once. Still, a machine is a machine. With the vehicle being electrically reliant, how prevalent are the charging docks going to be? What happens when the vehicle dies out where there isn’t any charging docks nearby.
PopScoot is due to roll out its service at up to 30 locations island-wide, you can be sure that the destination you are headed to will be dock station covered – as long as you use the service for what it was intended for. “First and last-mile solution” is what the company calls it as you utilize the service to get around somewhere preferably within the 15 minutes radius.
Alas, in a densely populated nation like Singapore, this e-scooter will definitely get some work done.
All-things electronic is slowly becoming the norm, especially when the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has already taken measures to facilitate enforcement against unruly riders. In the midst of the ever-rising cost of COE and the car-lite society Singapore is turning into, I won’t be surprised if more e-scooter startups come onboard and mainstreams this mode of transport.
Fellow startups Telepod and Neuron Mobility have both entered the market earlier with a much smaller roll out, but have since registered 2000 users each.
It seems like it is only a matter of time before the art of vehicle sharing sweeps the streets of Singapore – perhaps even electronic bike sharing?
What’s not to like about this up and coming talk of the town? It’s less labour-intensive than cycling, It’s greener than mainstream transport, and it’s definitely cheaper than a price surged Uber ride.