Bolt’s mission is to create cities for people, not cars

Paweł Kuncicki, Country Manager, Bolt Poland

For decades, cities have been built for cars, neglecting pedestrians. Increased urban traffic means air pollution and noise, as well as square kilometers of parking areas. Bolt is willing to build cities for people, offering diverse urban mobility services to more than 100 million users in 45 countries in Europe and Africa.

Cities built for cars are noisy, their residents are stuck in traffic jams or desperate to find a free parking space. It is also missing pedestrian promenades. In some parts of the world, cities have as many as eight parking spaces per car. This is due to the need for easy parking in every part of the city.

Cities for people, not cars

Bolt’s mission is to work in favor of better cities. Green cities, where the offer of multi-modal transport means that residents have a choice to travel by private car or not. As recently as 15 years ago, the only way to order a taxi was to make a phone call, indicate the exact address and accept an extended waiting time. At that time, It was equally unimaginable to get around the city by electric scooter, which can be parked and left for the next user whenever it feels convenient.

Over the past nine years, we at Bolt have developed products that offer better and more affordable alternatives for almost every purpose for which a private car is used. These include scooters and e-bikes, as well as shared mobility options such as ride-hailing and car-sharing.

Taxi rides ordered through the Bolt app (ride-hailing) are helping people switch from private cars to shared mobility. According to a City Vision study we conducted in Berlin, within five years ride-hailing and other shared mobility options could result in up to 24.7% of journeys being made by shared transport instead of private cars.

City residents open to change

As a superapp with a variety of solutions within one app, we regularly encourage users to adapt their chosen means of transport to the distance. Encouraging users and offering them alternatives is working. According to a study we prepared in cooperation with the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics, as many as 68% of Cracow’s citizens surveyed were willing to choose an electric scooter instead of a taxi service for shorter journeys, after receiving encouragement in the app.

The willingness of city habitants to change their habits is also seen in the interest in the Bolt Business offer. Companies that have opted for rides with the Bolt app are also increasingly willing to implement the new employee benefit of electric scooters and e-bikes.

Urban multimodal transport in one app

One in four journeys ordered via the Bolt app worldwide is less than 3 km. Is this always a distance that can only be covered by car? Scooters and electric bikes are a much more environmentally and health-friendly alternative. Therefore, in one Bolt app, for shorter journeys, an electric scooter can be rented in a few clicks. This makes all the more sense given that already in Europe several cities, such as Paris and London, are moving towards car-free city centres and the 15-minute concept. The idea behind the latter one is that communities are designed so that all people’s daily needs are within walking distance, a few bus stops or a ride on a scooter or electric bike.

At Bolt, we believe that the development and success of multimodal transport depends on effective cooperation with the city authorities and integration with city transport. Therefore, we always work closely with the local administration and support them in this transformation. We also believe that by working together, in 5-10 years’ time all urban transport modes such as public transport, taxi and ride-hailing services and micromobility will be so well integrated that the need to own a private car will be significantly reduced.