Spin is excited to start off this year by announcing several partnerships with street safety organizations in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. Safety is central to our mission of creating 15-minute cities and these partnerships will help strengthen our commitment to keeping all road users safe.‍

Centering Equity in Street Safety‍

In the U.S., Spin has partnered with the Vision Zero Network, The Brown Bike Girl, and eppur si muove to provide tailored safety messages to riders, educational materials, in-house training, videos, and events focused on improving rider safety on campuses and in cities.

"Vision Zero Network is excited to join Spin in advocating for safe street design and lower, safer speeds in cities across the U.S.,” said Leah Shahum, founder and executive director of Vision Zero Network. “And we appreciate the opportunity to assist Spin in creating the best rider and driver safety messaging in the industry.

We are excited to build on our partnership with Vision Zero Network, which started last year when we sponsored panel discussions hosted by the nonprofit that addressed the vital question of what role, if any, should enforcement, given the racial and social inequalities built into our law enforcement structures, play in work to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries. That sponsorship was part of Spin’s ongoing support of Vision Zero Network’s work facilitating a cohort of 20 cities re-examining the role of enforcement in light of growing awareness of racial bias in traffic stops.

Also continuing this year is the Safety for All initiative that we launched last year with The Brown Bike Girl, where we partnered with Courtney Williams, the chief strategist and founder, to create a series of videos and training materials designed to speak to the unique challenges faced by Black and Brown people, including how to advocate for safe places to ride.

Spin partnered with Williams as part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen our approach to equity. While making sure new micromobility is available in all neighborhoods is a start, Spin recognizes that 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.

“Black and Brown people face substantial economic and geographic challenges to participating in the modern environmentally sustainable mobility movement,” said Williams.”

“I'm especially proud of the opportunity the project has presented to speak directly to the unique cultural concerns that have also been a significant barrier to bike and helmet use even when it is available.”. ‍

Prioritizing Campus Safety‍

We are proud of our close relationships with our campus partners and this year, we are partnering with eppur si muove, inc. (esm) to develop a Campus Safety Toolkit. A 100 percent Minority/Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) certified entity, eppur si muove is a service design studio based in New York that creates communication and education materials focused on gender, health, environmental, and mobility issues known to affect female-identifying people, new immigrants, and low-income populations in densely populated settings.

This toolkit is designed to help campuses expand safety awareness through highly-trained student safety ambassadors. These ambassadors are experts in riding safety through Spin’s custom training program.

"Eppur si muove is very excited to partner with Spin to create a comprehensive rider safety education program for the University of Central Florida. Rider education is key to ensuring the success of a micromobility program, and Spin's approach is second to none. We can't wait to roll this out across the country in 2022," said Angela Azzolino, principal with eppur si muove.‍

Partnerships in Canada‍

In Canada, we’re excited to have partnered with Canada Safety Council (CSC), a nonprofit non-governmental agency leading the national effort to reduce preventable deaths, injuries and economic loss, to create standardized safety material for the country.

“Road safety is of paramount importance to all Canadian road users, and especially important to keep in mind in the context of vulnerable road users. We’re proud to be working with Spin to help develop responsible and safe riding guidelines for micromobility in Canada, including e-scooters and e-bikes,” said Jacqueline Barbe, national manager of Vehicle Programs at Canada Safety Council.

Spin launched in Canada last year and micromobility there continues to grow in popularity. Through our partnership, material will be produced that explains safety and regulations for both publicly shared and privately owned e-scooters and e-bikes. For our part, Spin is providing industry experience and sharing the strong foundation of safety messaging that we already have, including our Spin Safe messaging, safety quizzes, training courses, and other relevant materials. CSC will help us get this important information out to a broader Canadian audience.‍

Deepening Our Approach in the U.K.‍

And in the U.K., Spin has partnered with both AA DriveTech, the country’s leaders in driver safety education, and the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), a leading road safety education organization.

DriveTech has created a new, interactive online learning module where Spin riders can learn about how to stand on a scooter properly, to be aware of common hazards, to follow the rules of the road, and to properly park. Riders can earn up to £5 ride credit for successfully completing the module.

"DriveTech is pleased to provide the highest-quality interactive safety training to Spin riders. Through a newly-launched, easy-to-navigate online learning module, riders can learn about proper riding stance, rules of the road, and proper parking to keep both riders and pedestrians safe,” said Brian Watts, senior account manager with DriveTech.

Spin has also partnered with RoSPA, an independent nonprofit organization with strong links to local and national policy decision makers in the U.K. The goal of our collaboration with RoSPA is to achieve a better understanding of the perceptions by the general public and advocacy groups of scooter safety in order to better inform road safety policy.

“We see the development of ‘designing in’ safety for our streets as a fundamental step to ensuring safety for all road users,” said Nathan Davies, Executive Head of Policy and Portfolio at RoSPA.

“We recognise the important benefit that Spin and others can deliver for the UK Public - through educating and enabling e-scooters to be used safely. RoSPA wants to encourage a culture of safe behaviors on the road for drivers, riders and pedestrians, and wherever possible utilizing the capability of the new technology that is available to us to create safer roads,” added Davies.

With this strong start to 2022, we hope our partnerships with these leading organizations in three countries will set a solid foundation for future safety initiatives.