These past two years presented many challenges for our industry, for transportation in general, and for the communities and partners we work with. As we look forward to 2022, the accomplishments of this past year give us reason to be hopeful.

The milestones we achieve, the goals we set, and the partnerships we forge – and strengthen – each year become the foundation upon which we build the following year. Our foundation is strong.

Spin will end 2021 in 113 cities and university campuses in half-a-dozen countries. Our two million riders took 11 million trips, totaling 17 million miles, which is equivalent to 34 trips to the moon and back.

This year, we’ve also achieved a record number of exclusive or limited operator agreements with our campus and city partners. We currently operate with 37 exclusive permits and with 48 limited operator permits.

Spin also deepened its commitment to safety, sustainability, transparency, and equity. Through the years, Spin’s strength has come from our partnerships and our collaborations, and 2021 has been no exception. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from this year that will help us create an even more successful 2022.‍

Better tech means safer vehicles

We also partnered with Drover AI to create Spin Insight, an industry-leading approach to address concerns around sidewalk riding and parking issues. Using a suite of sensors and cameras on the scooters, Spin Insight is able to identify in real time sidewalk riding and other unsafe behaviors with more accuracy than GPS-based systems.

We know that different people have different mobility needs and comfort levels. With safety as a top priority, Spin introduced its new e-bike, the S-300. The introduction of the new e-bikes is a bit of a return to our roots as the company that launched the first city-permitted dockless bikeshare service in the U.S. The S-300 combines the familiar form factor of a bike with a pedal-assist motor that helps riders with hills and otherwise challenging terrain while helping them get where they need to go safely and comfortably.

A transparent and holistic approach to sustainability

This year, we marked an important milestone for Spin’s sustainability. We officially became a carbon neutral company in 2021, a major milestone on our longer path to becoming carbon negative – taking more carbon out of the atmosphere than we contribute – by 2025. Spin also joined more than 100 other companies in signing the Climate Pledge, reaffirming our commitment to climate action and decarbonizing the global economy.

The key to meeting our goals is to measure our impact. This year, Spin was the first micromobility company to share our detailed greenhouse gas accounting with the public as part of our commitment to transparency  within the communities we serve.

This year, we began rolling out electric vans in a number of markets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with our operations. In Spain and in the United Kingdom, our van fleets are 100 percent electric, and Miami became our first U.S. city with a 100 percent electric van fleet.

Of course, where our electricity comes from also matters. This year, we transitioned to 100 percent renewable power in our warehouses to ensure that our scooters and operations vehicles are charged with electricity that minimizes our carbon footprint.

We look forward to continuing our work toward being a carbon negative company by 2025, but we also remain committed to the bigger picture: mode shift. The root causes of climate change can only be addressed by dramatically reducing our use of fossil fuels and carbon-emitting modes of transportation. ‍

‍Universal Basic Mobility

This year marked the launch of Move PGH, a public-private partnership spearheaded by Spin that gives residents access to a menu of diverse transportation options by bringing together scooters, bikes, buses, and shared cars in a seamless experience all available online in Transit App and offline at hubs.

As part of Move PGH, Spin will work with the City, local nonprofits, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon on a Universal Basic Mobility (UBM) pilot, covering the cost to use the Move PGH suite of transportation options for 100 low-income residents over the course of six months, while researchers measure the impact on participants’ economic mobility and health.

With transportation intrinsically linked to access to essential goods and services like food, jobs, childcare, school, low-income folks are disproportionately impacted by the cost and inaccessibility of transportation, especially in a system that has historically favored car ownership over other, more affordable transportation options.

Over the next several months, we will continue to work with researchers to see how access to more affordable options impacts the economic and social mobility of these households.‍

Centering the voices of the communities we serve

At Park(ing) Day in Atlanta this year, we kicked off an exciting new Safety for All initiative in partnership with The Brown Bike Girl.

Spin partnered with Courtney Williams, founder of and Chief Strategist for The Brown Bike Girl, as part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen our approach to equity. While better infrastructure and making new micromobility options available in all neighborhoods is a start to a more equitable transportation network, we must also pair it with concerted outreach efforts that address the very real concerns of the communities we hope to serve. Many of the obstacles that Black and Brown communities face to cycling are also obstacles to adopting micromobility. Unless we understand the cultural, historical, and political context, we can’t begin to engage historically underserved communities meaningfully.

Spin’s partnership with Williams was one of several this year designed to deepen our approach to equity by centering the voices of historically underrepresented communities. We also sponsored two panel discussions by Vision Zero Network that focused on rethinking enforcement in the role of Vision Zero. 

These discussions tackled the hard questions around policing, racial equity, and how to advocate for safer streets for all. We look forward to continuing our work with Vision Zero Network and all our partners into next year and beyond.

Infrastructure matters

And this year, we were proud to see our first streets project become permanent. For years, Spin has believed in the importance of investing in safe streets infrastructure in the communities we serve. We have coordinated with city planners and helped fund dozens of community-centered safe streets demonstration projects. Often, because these projects are meant to be quick-build demonstrations, they aren’t permanent, but designed to be a preview of what streets could look like. This year, Salt Lake City took the next step and made permanent improvements that we first worked together to build a preview of in 2020.

It’s this move toward safer streets that we believe will ultimately bring us closer to helping get people out of cars and on to more sustainable modes of transportation in the long run and we’re happy to be a part of that transformation.‍

Looking ahead

We are excited about the work we’ve done in 2021 because it lays the groundwork for even greater and more exciting things in the year to come. We are proud to work with so many great partners and to serve unique and resilient communities. We are looking forward to seeing what we will create together in 2022.