Catz on tariff impacts in the electric scooter sharing startup marketplace
Sarah Catz, transit researcher with specialization in disruptive innovation and technology, and instructor for UPPP’s Transportation Planning course, was quoted in a recent article in The Verge that explores possible impacts of looming U.S. tariff increases on electric scooter sharing companies and their consumers.
“[Catz] thinks that the tariffs might bring an unintended benefit for companies whose dump-and-run approach has rubbed city officials the wrong way. ‘The tariffs might actually make [companies] be a little bit more strategic,’ she says. ‘Because costs are going up, they’re going to need to not just carelessly dump scooters in a city and think that’s okay. They’re not going to want to waste them.’”
Read the article: “Trump’s trade war is coming for cheap scooters and the startups that love them,” The Verge, August 17, 2018