Fighting traffic and searching for parking are some of the least enjoyable aspects of driving in a city. Some studies estimate that 25 to 40% of traffic congestion in city centers is caused by people looking for parking spots. Not only does the quest for parking waste time and fuel, it also causes delays for other drivers and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

To find ways to reduce traffic congestion in urban areas and the associated environmental impacts, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory teamed up with the Civic Infrastructure Collaborative (CINCO) and Millenium Parking Garages in Chicago to test a new approach to transportation that pairs off-street parking with e-scooter rentals.

In August 2022, Argonne and CINCO began a pilot study with Millenium Garages, a massive underground parking facility in downtown Chicago with more than 9,100 spaces.

The pilot program started with eight scooters operated by Ridy, an electric scooter and bike company based in Chicago.

Users who parked in a Millenium Garage signed up for an e-scooter in advance on Millennium Garages’ website and could then use that scooter for the entire day.

To evaluate the pilot program, the team collected data on user interest, distance traveled and number of trips. The CINCO team also conducted a customer survey to understand how people incorporated e-scooters into their commuting plans.

During the five-month 2022 pilot program, 225 unique riders embarked on 546 e-scooter trips, with an average of 4.7 trips per day. The average distance from the garage to a destination was 0.72 miles, with 90% of the stops being farther than the typical walking distance of a quarter mile.

In October 2023, the team decided to double the e-scooter fleet to 16 to increase use and provide availability to more customers. The e-scooter rentals were free when the program first launched. Then the team introduced a small fee to open up capacity for first-time riders.

During the 2023 pilot study, the team grew the rider base by 77% compared to 2022, with 398 unique riders taking 1,341 e-scooter trips.

The success of the pilot program also demonstrated to Millenium Garages the value of combining e-scooters and parking.

The e-scooter pilot program began as part of the DOE’s SMART Mobility 2.0 program, an effort to improve transportation through testing new affordable, efficient, safe and clean energy technologies. Argonne scientists helped conceptualize the idea with CINCO, provide funding for the e-scooters and conduct the data analysis for the pilot study. Now, Millenium Parking Garages is expanding its e-scooter fleet and taking on the associated operating and maintenance responsibilities.

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