How many miles did Boiseans travel in 2019 on e-scooters? An astronomical amount
Boise riders love electric scooters so much, they could have ridden them to the moon and back in 2019, with enough miles left for half a return trip.
Numbers from the city of Boise show that people clocked 608,032 miles total on e-scooters this year. That number would get a particularly avid scooter rider around the circumference of the Earth more than 24 times, or grant them about 2,283 trips between New York City and Los Angeles, or take them the distance of more than 10.7 million football fields.
If only residents of Boise were riding those miles, it would mean every Boisean — from newborns to grandparents — rode about 2.66 miles in 2019. (Split evenly between all 1,787,065 Idahoans? That number goes down to just over a third of a mile apiece.)
There are three scooter companies in the game: Bird, Lime and Spin. Boise riders prefer Lime, going a total of 298,845 miles with the brand. Bird came in a close second with 287,886 miles, while people rode Spin scooters (a brand that came to town in late April) a total of 21,301 miles.
It was the first full calendar year for scooters in Boise. Lime and Bird both deployed fleets to the city in mid-October 2018. Boise does not keep documentation on the most commonly used routes or sites, but data presented to the Boise City Council in May show that people are most likely to ride in the afternoon, on weekends and during nice weather. People opt to take scooters even in snow, although at lesser rates.
Since the introduction of the scooters, Boise officials have introduced a series of regulations on the popular mode of transportation. That includes geofencing congested areas (such as public plazas) to force riders to slow down, adding ID numbers so that companies can track reckless users and remove them from the apps, and penalties for people who deface public property using scooters.
How far could I go on an e-scooter?
Newer scooter models can travel about 30 miles on a battery charge, so if you’re interested in making a really long trek, here’s approximately how many round trips between Boise and some popular destinations you could travel before hitting 608,032 miles:
- Nampa: 14,477 round trips
- Seattle: 603 round trips
- Los Angeles: 360 round trips
- New York: 123 round trips
- Paris: 60 round trips
- Tokyo: Almost 59 round trips
- Antarctica: 32 round trips
Prefer experiences? Here’s roughly how many times you could ...
- ... scoot the Mount Borah Trail: 83,292 times.
- ... compete in the Race to Robie Creek: 46,414 times.
- ... ride the length of the Greenbelt: 24,321 times.
- ... travel along Route 66: 248 times
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