Understanding the impact of shared e-scooters on spatial accessibility and social equity of public transport in a Nordic context

Shared e-scooters, as new mobility services, have been demonstrated to have an important impact on public transport. However, associated with complicated human-environment interactions in different urban contexts (e.g., built environment, human travel behaviors), how shared e-scooters improve spatial accessibility and social equity in public transport are poorly investigated and understood.
The motivation of this project is to bridge this knowledge gap and quantify the impacts of shared e-scooters on accessibility and equity in public transport. Traditional survey-based methods are infeasible to evaluate the interplay between share e-scooters and public transport at a fine spatial scale. Here, I propose to use the emerged GPS-based vehicle availability data to measure the aforementioned impacts spatially. Specific objectives of this project are to: (1) explore the spatial variations of the interplay relationships (e.g., competition or complement) between shared e-scooters and public transport and the associations with urban built environment; (2) quantify how shared e-scooters promote spatial accessibility to public transport across space; (3) evaluate social equity in public transport accessibility after introducing shared e-scooters to cities.
The whole project will be conducted in four Nordic cities, including Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Helsinki as case studies, while the developed methodology is also applicable to other cities if the required data are available. Our findings will provide new scientific information and knowledge to better integrate shared e-scooters with public transport toward sustainable urban mobility systems.