If you live in the metro area, chances are you've noticed a decrease in the number of dockless vehicles on the sidewalks.
Only six months ago, Atlanta was littered with e-scooters and e-bikes, corralled on the BeltLine and the topic of many complaints by residents. Now, there’s few and far between, with multiple companies deciding to pull out of Atlanta's unfriendly and unprofitable dockless market.
Here's a question for you: When's the last time you saw a Bolt scooter?
It appears the Florida-based micromobility startup (with brand ambassador Usain Bolt) made an Irish exit out of Atlanta.
Since Atlanta Inno announced the exit of Lime scooters earlier in January, we've monitored Bolt's possible exit after noticing no scooters were available on the map in the company's app for Atlanta.
From Jan. 9 to Jan. 28, no scooters have appeared on the app to rent in Atlanta.
“Under Julia Steyn, the recently appointed CEO of Bolt Mobility, the company is evaluating its current markets as it expands its offerings and capabilities with municipalities and businesses to identify and execute more locally adaptable and data-driven micromobility solutions," a company spokesperson said. The company did not confirm whether or not Bolt was still in Atlanta.
Earlier this month, Gizmodo reported Bolt had pulled out of some U.S. markets, but declined to specify which ones. Gizmodo also noticed the lack of Bolt scooters on their service maps for D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Louisville, Nashville, Portland, Richmond and Roanoke.
If Bolt has indeed left Atlanta, it would make it the fifth dockless company to do so in the months since Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms implemented a nighttime ban on dockless vehicles and the city decided to put a hold on accepting new dockless permits. Lime scooters, Lyft scooters, Gotcha scooters, JUMP Bikes have left the city.
This leaves about a little more than 5,000 dockless vehicles left on Atlanta streets. The remaining companies are Bird, Boaz, JUMP, Wheels and Spin --- though a representative from Spin told Atlanta Inno that while the company has permits for 2,000 dockless vehicles in Atlanta, it has not deployed them on the streets.
Bolt Mobility CEO Julia Steyn shared her thoughts on the failure of micromobility and the company's plans for the future in a LinkedIn post published last week.
"The current state of micromobility — e-scooters, shared bikes and mopeds, and how they’re being used, distributed, and managed — is not working," she wrote. "What started as an idea to provide for last mile transportation, particularly in urban and congested areas, has become more of a recreational activity with an overabundance of product causing contention between cities and private operators."
Steyn said the focus of micromobility needs to be as a service through direct, local partnerships rather than country-wide market launches.
"We’ve all learned a lot. We experimented with providing micromobility solutions in cities large and small. And now we can integrate micromobility directly into the fabric of a city, business, or campus, shifting from the norm of sporadically placing vehicles wherever they are allowed," she wrote. "By integrating with a city or business’ current transportation grid, for example, e-scooters can be strategically distributed to the areas where people demand them most, at the exact time they need them."
The company is working closely with a tech company in Japan in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
