TIER Mobility has partnered with French start-up Omni to pilot wheelchair-accessible e-scooters in France ahead of possible wider rollout to the UK to provide greater freedom and autonomy to those with reduced mobility in towns and cities.

TIER Mobility provides micro-mobility transportation using lightweight vehicles, such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones, that may be borrowed as part of a self-service scheme in which people hire vehicles for short-term use.

Omni, a firm that won the innovation competition Concours Lépine in 2021, has created a solution that uses a universal fixing to attach a wheelchair to an e-scooter.

Through the partnership, TIER Mobility and Omni have launched a rental programme for wheelchair accessible electric e-scooters in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in France, helping to provide the 1.4 million wheelchair users in Paris with improved access to urban mobility.

Connecting to 95 percent of wheelchairs on the market, according to the partnership, the technology enables wheelchair users to utilise powered mobility at a “much lower” fee than a wheelchair power attachment, which costs approximately £4,000.

With exclusive new data from TIER Mobility showing that one in 10 of their riders identify as having a disability, TIER Mobility, which is also in the process of developing partnerships with other major French cities Bordeaux and Lyon, is hoping to extend the partnership to locations outside of France, such as London, in the near future.

Georgia Yexley, TIER Mobility General Manager for UK & Ireland, said: “Considering accessibility for any mobility service is critical – and micro-mobility is no exception.

“Whilst accessibility must be considered at all stages, it is just as important to create a service which can be iteratively improved and become more accessible over time. Our work with Omni shows how we as an industry can react to ongoing challenges and make micro-mobility usable by all.”

TIER Mobility’s mission is to “change mobility for good” by providing people with its e-scooter, e-bike, and pedal bike services.

Recently, Tampa International Airport in the US launched two new initiatives for passengers with both physical and hidden disabilities, which included an innovative self-driving powerchair service for passengers with reduced mobility at the airport.

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