It’s the policy question that faces the scooter and the e-bike, the smallest forms of electric transportation. They’re surging in popularity among regular people, but the U.S. government hasn’t yet adopted them as solutions to solve heavy-duty problems like traffic jams or climate change. And it is not certain that it ever will.

“A battery the size of your arm and a motor the size of your fist is big enough to move a person,” says Horace Dediu, the Harvard-educated Romanian economist who coined the term “micromobility.”

Yet EVs use 3,000 pounds to carry a 200-pound payload.

Mass adoption of right-sized vehicles [bicycles, e-bikes, e-scooters, golf carts...] could eliminate traffic jams, slash personal transportation expenses on fuel and insurance, reduce road fatalities, create room for more urban housing by eliminating the need for parking spaces and, as an added benefit, shake the dreariness out of commuting with a little fresh air.

But enabling regulators are scrambling to catch up.

This article explains why the auto industry is still in the driver’s seat when it comes to public transportation policy in North America, and what has to be done to change that.

— Peter Ladner, Board Chair