Published in El Pais, August 6th 2019.

Here in Buenos Aires I have noticed a new trend that was not here when I first arrived, shared electric scooters, similar to a shared bike program people can activate the scooter with a scanner, take it where they need to go and then just leave it wherever they want for the next person to use. Personally, I find it a little annoying as I am finding them left everywhere and I must walk over them. They are not particularly cheap either as using them for 15 minutes is comparable to just taking a taxi. Although I do not like them, they seem to be popular as I see them being used all the time. On top of being fun to use they are often being cited as a zero-emission vehicle and good for the environment, though a latest study shows that might not be the case.

Sure, it is not as bad as a car but a study by North Carolina state shows a lot of emissions go into the production, delivery and maintenance of the scooter, not to mention the source of the electricity powering the scooter can be from both clean energy (such as wind and solar) and dirty (coal and oil). Should one really make the environment their number one priority they would either bike or take other forms of public transportation like the bus.

I am not saying get rid of the scooters, as much as I do not like them I respect free market and any business should have a chance to have a go at it but these companies must be more honest with their claims as claiming they are a zero emission source of transportation is not only not true it is borderline fraud. Also, while they are not zero emission vehicles, they are still way better than taking a car so its not like they have to remove the green label from their products, just drop the zero-emission label. With easy access to information and lots of independent studies the truth will eventually be out anyways, it is better to just beat everyone to it and allow consumers to make their own decision on whether to use them or not.