Footprints of the Future: Cleaner and Faster Transportation with Shared E-Scooter Operational Models

Abstract

In recent years, shared e-scooters have become increasingly popular as a mode of transportation in urban areas. Shared e-scooters have emerged as a convenient and sustainable transportation option in urban areas, providing users with a flexible and efficient way to travel short distances within a city. Many service providers and local municipalities are interested in implementing shared e-scooter operational models. However, determining which operating model to prefer and what the service areas will be is a significant problem. We aimed to solve the implementation of three different operational models, the site selection problem of station locations, and service areas for Erzurum, the metropolitan city in this study. As shared e-scooter is quite a new transportation mode; information collected to assess the operational models' sustainability performance may be indeterminate and vague. In this study, the Geographic Information System (GIS)-based hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method is proposed for the solution of implementation, site selection, and service areas problems of three different shared e-scooter operational models. To this end, a four-step scientific and strategic solution approach is developed: (i) the identification and detailed explanation of 5 main and 24 sub-criteria, (ii) the weighting of criteria through the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), Multi-Influencing Factor (MIF), and Best-Worst Method (BWM) in order to increase the sensitivity and robustness of the study, (iii) obtaining a suitability map for the solution of implementation, site selection, and service areas problems of operational models, and (iv) assigning shared e-scooter stations and analyzing their performance levels with COmplex PRoportional ASsessment (COPRAS). The results show that, in Erzurum, the central three districts are the most suitable for service areas. The paper's solution methodology can help service providers and policymakers invest in sustainable shared e-scooter operational models, even in situations of high uncertainty.