It’s a very exciting time for the shared micromobility industry right now, and that’s especially the case in Baltimore. In 2024, Batlimoreans took an impressive 1.6m trips using shared micromobility. And in October 2024 alone, 237,722 trips were taken on shared scooters and bikes — the highest ridership month since the pandemic and the 4th highest month ever!
Spin has been operating in Baltimore for the last five years and we are very proud of results like these, especially when we know that roughly ⅓ of those nearly quarter of a million trips (from October alone) will have replaced a car or rideshare trip. This is meaningful progress when it comes to the fundamental goal – and indeed the purpose of our service – of shifting more short-distance trips out of cars and onto smaller vehicles like bikes and scooters.
However, growth alone is not enough. We must ensure that equity is a guiding principle for the growth of sustainable transportation. Through a truly collaborative partnership with BCDOT, we have been able to prioritize equity through a combination of city regulations and incentives, meaningful operator investment, and innovative community partnerships. The results we’ve achieved together offer a case study in how cities and shared mobility operators can work together to grow programs more equitably.
The Results
The two heat maps above show geographic distribution of daily average trips in 2019 (left) vs 2024 (right), reflecting the expansion of daily ridership outside of downtown areas to serve a broader range of trips and riders across the entire City of Baltimore.
The “White L” and the “Black Butterfly”
Those who live in Baltimore are likely familiar with the “White L” and “Black Butterfly”. The terms, coined by Morgan State Professor Lawrence Brown, reference population mapping with white, more affluent populations in the shape of an “L” and black populations on the East and West side forming the shape of a butterfly. These distributions reflect historical injustices and inequitable investment across Baltimore that is fragmented by race, income, and geography.
When the program first launched, scooter ridership in 2019 was concentrated in the "White L" but by 2024 significant shifts have materialized thanks to the combination of robust operator investment and effective regulatory requirements and incentives from BCDOT. Ridership becomes significantly more geographically dispersed with high ridership areas throughout the "Black Butterfly." The maps above also show ridership expanding much more into the city’s Complete Streets equity priority areas.
Regulatory Framework
Baltimore City Department of Transportation (BCDOT) has developed a strong regulatory framework that prioritizes equity through district-based distribution requirements as well as minimum deployments to specific equity zones. Meeting these requirements consistently–along with a host of others–not only ensures compliance, but also makes an operator eligible for automatic permit renewal, something Spin is very proud to have achieved every year since this performance-based incentive has been in place. This alignment of mobility goals with operator incentives has been a key to both the growth of equity ridership and the growth of Spin’s business in Baltimore, which has in turn allowed us to make additional investments in the community.
Operator Investment
There are 3 key components that drive Spin’s model for investing in equity in Baltimore.
- Spin offers free rides to eligible individuals enrolled in any kind of government assistance through its Spin Access program. Since Spin has operated in Baltimore, thousands of Baltimoreans have been able to utilize Spin’s micromobility service as a public transportation option that is completely free of charge.
- Spin recently established a geographic based discount system, meaning that in lower income areas of the city, trips are automatically discounted by 50% regardless of whether an individual is enrolled in our low-income program. Hundreds of unique riders are taking thousands of trips every month that start in Spin Access zones. And in addition to lowering the cost of trips, Access Zones help funnel new riders into our enrollment program through targeted marketing efforts.
- Spin’s latest effort to grow enrollment in Spin Access comes through a partnership with Bikemore, Baltimore’s transportation advocacy organization. Specifically, we’ve set up a system to allow Bikemore to directly enroll individuals in Spin Access. The goal here is to reduce barriers and leverage local partnerships to expand our reach. Bikemore has also brought an organizer through the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps who is working specifically to help enroll eligible riders.
Summary
The equitable growth of scootershare and bikeshare in Baltimore should be both celebrated and replicated as a model for other cities. In doing so, it must also be recognized that a successful public-private partnership – whereby goals and incentives are aligned such that both public entities and private operators are set up to win – is a necessary ingredient for shared success. BCDOTs recognition and embrace of our partnership is borne out in the equitable ridership results that speak for themselves.
Special thanks to BCDOT staff Tyler Smith and Bikemore Executive Director, Jed Weeks, for their contributions to this article.
.jpg)
.jpg)
