Women in German cities often find themselves frustrated by shared mobility options such as e-scooters, bicycles, and cars. Providers and municipalities ignore their needs in numerous ways, thus hindering the transition to sustainable mobility.
Raze Baziani used to get around Berlin by e-scooter and rental bike, to work in the government district, to meet friends at Rosenthaler Platz, and late at night back home to Schöneberg [bougie borough]. Today, the political advisor for human rights does not use shared vehicles aymore.
“On the e-scooters and rental bikes, I eventually started feeling like I was constantly losing control,” says Baziani. “The devices are so heavy and bulky, it’s as if they’re driving me – not the other way around.” On top of that, there were always new apps, registrations, subscriptions, and providers. “Sharing is supposed to make everyday life easier. It only made mine more complicated.”
Baziani shares this experience with women worldwide. Whether in Berlin, Stockholm, or São Paulo, they use shared vehicles significantly less often than men. In Germany, their share of e-scooter and rental bike users is below 30 percent, and even lower for carsharing. These services are considered an important tool for making transportation more environmentally friendly: they are intended to reduce car traffic, alleviate parking pressure in cities, fill gaps in public transportation, and save CO₂. But if only a few women participate, their potential remains limited.
“It’s no coincidence that women use sharing services less often,” says mobility researcher Ines Kawgan-Kagan. “Sharing services are geared towards the standard male user: more tech-savvy, taller, and stronger.” For example, the handlebars of bicycles and e-scooters are often wide, not adjustable, and simply too high for many women. In addition, women tend to have smaller hands. “On some scooters, they would even have to release the grip to reach the brake lever, which is positioned far to the side,” says Kawgan-Kagan.
Shorter people find the scooters bulky. An e-scooter from the sharing provider Dott weighs 23 kilograms, which corresponds to about a third of the average body weight of a woman in Germany.
"Smaller bodies require more strength to maintain balance and control, especially in critical moments," says Kawgan-Kagan. The same applies to rental bikes, which often weigh 20 to 25 kilograms. A classic city bike usually weighs between 12 and 18 kilograms and is much easier for many women to handle.
But the industry is hesitant to build lighter vehicles. "The weight of the scooters is quite intentional – also to prevent vandalism," says Dott. Furthermore, users are more stable on the scooters. The company organizes training courses to familiarize them with the vehicles.
Many shared vehicles are also poorly designed for the needs of Rosalie Mathe, a teacher and mother from Braunschweig. "E-scooters aren't an option with a child and shopping," says the 30-year-old. Rental bikes offer neither child seats nor practical luggage racks. Mathe makes up to eight trips a day: to daycare, to work, and to the shops.
“There aren’t enough vehicles in the sharing system for all these different routes,” says Kawgan-Kagan. In Germany, women perform almost half as much unpaid care work as men – looking after children, shopping, or caring for relatives. Therefore, their daily journeys are often shorter and take them to many different places. “But sharing services are primarily designed for direct commutes – a pattern that statistically reflects the everyday mobility patterns of men.”
Car sharing isn't an option for Mathe either. At the nearest station of the Braunschweig-based provider Sheepersharing, a small city car and a larger van are available. She'd prefer a model she could get used to. Mathe uses her own car. "I need a vehicle I know and trust," she says.
Carsharing follows a different principle. Different models and sizes are intended to cover various needs – such as weekly shopping or the transport of larger items – and thus enable as much flexibility as possible in everyday life, explains provider Sheepersharing.
Women often place more value on technical safety and reliability than men, explains mobility researcher Kawgan-Kagan. They have long been led to believe that technology and driving are not among their strengths. But that doesn't mean they are less competent, she says, "but rather that they are more cautious."
If the path to the vehicle is the problem
Mathe also finds that the rental cars lack everyday items for parents with a child that she keeps in her own car: water bottles, wipes, a small toy. "I usually have my hands full," she says. "I'm grateful for anything that saves me time and effort in my daily routine."
Furthermore, places where scooters, rental bikes, and rental cars are located often feel dangerous. Researcher Kawgan-Kagan calls poorly lit underpasses and confusing streets where sharing stations are set up "spaces of fear."
Raze Baziani knows the feeling. In her hometown of Bonn, no bus runs to her family's house at night. Sharing would be practical – if you didn't have to walk along barely visible paths to reach the vehicles. "From the train station, I had to walk forever to a bike that was shown as available in the app. When I finally found it, it was broken," she says.
The providers emphasize that they take the criticism seriously. "We have been advocating for better-lit and better-located parking areas for years," says a spokesperson for Dott. However, the municipalities decide where space is available and how it is lit.
In Berlin, efforts are being made to place parking areas "along sight lines and near intersections" to make them more easily recognizable, the Senate Department for Mobility stated in response to an inquiry. Finding suitable locations is often difficult, as space is limited.
“As long as municipalities fail to make public spaces safer at night and providers don’t adapt their vehicles to the bodies and lifestyles of women, unequal usage will persist,” says Kawgan-Kagan. The sharing industry loses credibility when it claims to promote a transportation revolution while ignoring half the population. The fact that women are still underrepresented in public administration and among service providers is now having a detrimental effect.
Baziani says she wants to use sharing services again. "But only when the services are no longer planned without my input."
