Micromobility is most often discussed through transportation, climate, or safety lens. That framing misses its role as economic infrastructure.
In everyday practice, e-bikes and scooters are reshaping local retail markets by expanding who can reach neighborhood businesses with frequency, ease, and convenience. That expansion matters because retail success depends heavily on how far, how long, and how easily a customer is willing to travel for a purchase.
Along many of the city’s neighborhood corridors, the distance customers travel is still defined by walking. Four to six blocks. Beyond that, friction sets in, and where there is friction, there are fewer customers. Trips that feel too long, inconvenient, or unsafe are less likely to happen. These dynamics hit transit-poor neighborhoods in a different way: residents have fewer alternatives, and as a result travel longer for basic needs like groceries and everyday goods and services.
Micromobility, however, is one of the most powerful tools available to change that equation. If a business draws customers willing to travel 10 minutes, that distance might be about half a mile on foot. On an e-bike, that same 10 minutes can stretch two or even three miles, significantly growing the number of customers within a reasonable distance.
This shift also has the added benefit of bringing residents in food deserts closer to existing grocery stores. This in turn also allows grocery stores to turn over product more quickly, reach a larger customer base, and deliver across a wider area, all while improving profitability — no small thing in an industry with razor-thin margins.
So why aren’t we adopting micromobility more broadly?
Two barriers are hiding in plain sight. First, landlords and co-op boards are increasingly banning e-bikes through leases and house rules. Fire safety concerns related to lithium-ion batteries deserve serious attention. But blanket bans are a blunt response that quietly suppress micromobility adoption, especially for apartment dwellers who lack secure storage.
E-bike batteries can and should be treated like other regulated, lithium-ion–powered mobility devices already common in residential buildings, such as electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters. Each poses safety risks, but rather than banning them outright, cities, including New York, have set clear standards for certification, storage, and use. Micromobility can and should be handled the same way.
Second, growing micromobility usage, particularly among delivery workers who rely on e-bikes for their livelihoods, has exposed gaps in basic infrastructure. Many bring their e-bikes onto subways from outer-borough neighborhoods. These bikes are heavy and cannot be carried up stairs. As a result, delivery workers wait for elevators, competing with caregivers using strollers and elderly riders.
A simple, proven solution exists: stair runnels, narrow tracks installed alongside stairs that allow bikes to be rolled rather than carried. Common in European transit systems, runnels would reduce elevator congestion while improving safety and accessibility for everyone.
These are not fringe ideas. Addressing barriers to e-bike storage and improving micromobility infrastructure are both included in the Regional Plan Association’s Planning Priorities for New York City’s Next Mayor, reflecting a growing recognition that transportation, housing policy, and economic vitality are deeply intertwined. As a member of RPA’s New York Committee, I endorse this agenda and its emphasis on practical, cross-sector solutions.
Let us recall that at the dawn of the automobile age, the “horseless carriage” sparked widespread safety concerns, much as e-bikes and scooters do today. Speed limits were inconsistent or nonexistent, traffic signals had yet to be invented, and there were few clear rules governing impaired driving. Seatbelt requirements were decades away. Rather than banning cars, cities and states adapted. Over time, they built systems to manage risk. Micromobility is at a similar moment. It is a powerful tool in both our transportation and economic development arsenal, and it deserves a similar response.
