Issue #88  -  Brought to you by Michal Naka and Adam Feldman. Join thousands of others who receive this analysis and curation of emerging mobility news in their inbox every week — subscribe now.

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Micromobility

• Why shared micromobility will survive post-pandemic. Michele Kyrouz lays out the case of why the health risks of shared micromobility vehicles can be mitigated.  As Steve Andersen said: “Actually, it's less risky than a shopping cart. Shared micromobility vehicles spend most of their life basking in sunlight, the ultraviolet content of which is a very potent antibiotic. Corona virus has been shown to be killed quickly by relatively low doses of UV.” | Michele Kyrouz

• Bikeshare report from Wuhan’s 49 days of quarantine:  Although total ride volume was down, average trip distance increased by 22% and medical workers accounted for 17% of daily active users.  “From January 23 to March 12, Meituan bicycles provided about 2.3 million rides in Wuhan, which accounted for more than half of the travel during the epidemic period.”  |  Wuhan Bike Ridership Report

• The world bicycle industry association calls on all governments to declare bike repair essential. | Bicycle Retailer

• Shared operators Gruv and Revel team up to fight vehicle theft, loss, and vandalism in Oakland, CA. | Gruv

• Counting scooters: the science behind micromobility fleet measurements. | SmartCitiesDive

Product Launches & Updates

• Bird is showing restaurants that are doing takeout and delivery in its app. | Bird

• The dockless locker. | Koloni

• DoorDash starts to rollout a grocery delivery product. | Bloomberg

• Grin rolled out a monthly scooter and bike rental service pilot in Sao Paulo. | Grin

• Wheels is deploying eBikes with self-cleaning handlebars and brake levers. | Techcrunch

Ridehailing & Delivery

• Delivery Hero has added 50,000 restaurants, and 1,500 other verticals, such as groceries and pharmacies, during the last three weeks.  | Delivery Hero

• Lyft tells its drivers to work for Amazon after ridership plummets. | Bloomberg

• Ridehailing in China: riders are required to wear facemasks, apps tell you if your driver has had a temperature check today, and an in-taxi sign shows if the vehicle was disinfected or not.  | Twitter

• RideOS is giving away free delivery software to restaurants in San Francisco with a community pool of drivers. “Small businesses will get access to a rideOS-provided website to input orders. rideOS’ software will batch orders to customers close to each other together, and have the closest driver come pick up the orders when they’re ready.”  | RideOS

• Some restaurants are rethinking working with big delivery apps by encouraging on-site orders and training staff as drivers. |  WSJ

• UberEats accelerates push into grocery delivery. “Uber… aims to deliver a smaller range of essential items within as little as 30 minutes.” | FT

Investment & Deals

• What does the auto industry look like post pandemic? Five things I learned from the 2008 automotive collapse. Related:  “Auto Loan term lengths also increased in March, surpassing 70 months for the first time on record.” | Michael Ramsey

• Via raised a $200 million Series E at a $2.25 billion dollar valuation. | Axios

Cities & Policy

• Stay-at-home orders have reduced traffic accidents by half in Los Angeles. “This is an important reminder of how hazardous our normal lives have become.” | LA Times

• Here’s a spreadsheet tracking which cities are expanding bicycle and walking access in response to COVID-19. | Tabitha Combs

• Transit and Swiftly team up to put on a webinar about public transit in the time of COVID-19. | Webinar

• The Citymapper mobility index tracks how movement patterns are changing in cities during COVID-19. In short, they’re not. | Citymapper

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