Are Electric Scooters Eco-Friendly? It Depends On What They’re Replacing
The technology is so new that people don’t know, but that doesn’t stop them from making educated guesses.
When electric scooters flooded into Austin, the companies that rent them touted their environmental benefits: “Riders were able to prevent 445,334 pounds of carbon emissions,” a press release from Bird said. The startup LimeBike estimated its scooters reduced 8,500 pounds of CO2 here in just two weeks.
But those numbers are based on some shaky assumptions.