Dockless shared micromobility faces 23 times more taxes and fees per mile than personal cars. The finding comes from a report co-authored by Lime, Portland State University, and Sonoma State University, which examines tax and fee structures across 120 cities in 16 countries. Shared micromobility was found to be taxed twice through sales tax and programme fees which mean city governments receive on average 16.4% of the cost of every dockless e-bike or e-scooter.
“High fees contribute to negative outcomes for all parties – they increase the likelihood that programmes will close and drive higher prices for riders, both of which contradict cities’ transportation policy goals of sustainability and equity,” Lime Research Director Calvin Thigpen, who co-authored the study, told Zag Daily. “Fees are a policy choice and should be thought of as such; they are not just a mundane administrative consideration. This is the same approach taken with other modes – governments subsidise public transport because they recognise it helps achieve outcomes they care about, while national governments tax driving due to its negative externalities.”
The report found no uniform approach to cities’ tax and fee policies for dockless shared micromobility, with the highest per-vehicle fee being over four hundred times the lowest.
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