If you add more parking restrictions, people actually start using e-scooters way more.
March 19, 2026
Original Paper
Regulating the Curb with Geofenced Parking: Evidence on the Friction--Reliability Trade-off in Shared E-Scooters
SSRN · 6435376
The Takeaway
While you might think banning 'free-for-all' parking would kill demand, this study found that replacing open parking with geofenced, designated spots increases ridership. The 'friction' of the rule creates 'reliability'—passengers are more likely to use the service when they know exactly where they can find and leave a vehicle.
From the abstract
We study short-run responses to signed transitions between implemented geofenced parking bundles in shared e-scooter systems. Using a within-city causal event design with cumulative local spillover estimates, we analyse exact endpoint replacements such as shifts into no-parking regimes, shifts into no-parking-plus-restricted regimes, and shifts from no parking to allowed parking plus a designated-parking requirement. The analysis uses 34.6 million shared e-scooter trips from two operators and fo