Small Vehicles, Big Impact: Harmonizing Policy to Unlock Light Urban Mobility
By Sarah Saltz
What’s the big deal with little vehicles? Small, light urban vehicles (LUVs) are proliferating in cities, towns and villages in the U.S., and starting to cause some tension. LUVs include a range of vehicle types that are smaller than a conventional car, but larger than a bicycle. They are cheap, clean, and convenient for both goods delivery and everyday person travel. So what’s the issue? Read on to learn about these vehicles and how and why public officials and private industry leaders are coming together to chart a path for harmonious growth.
The opportunity with LUVs
Full-size vehicles dominate US roadways — even for short trips (less than five miles), which make up over 50% of all vehicle trips in America. Big vehicles for short trips lead to over-sized environmental, spatial, and safety challenges. Larger, heavier (more expensive!) vehicles consume more space and energy than smaller, lighter alternatives. Americans are increasingly discovering what global peers have long known — light urban vehicles (LUVs) are the way to go providing high convenience at low cost.
LUVs are a broad class of smaller, safe-speed vehicles and devices that includes neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs), e-cargo truck-trikes and quadcycles, e-tuktuks and other lightweight vehicles have top speeds of 25 mph and a smaller weight and footprint than conventional cars but are often larger and have more functionality than bikes or scooters. They offer significant advantages: affordability, lower emissions, and improved street safety due to their lighter weight and human scale.
In cities across the US, light urban vehicles (LUVs) represent a growing opportunity to transform mobility. Demand for LUVs, driven by the rise in e-commerce and last-mile delivery needs, is growing rapidly (over $16 billion by 2030), with certain form factors anticipated to experience even faster growth.
However, adoption is slowed by regulatory disparities across states, such as differing classifications, bans, and infrastructure limitations. For instance, e-tuktuks are often misclassified as motorcycles, and quadcycles face state-specific restrictions that conflict with local ordinances. Charging infrastructure and road designs often fail to accommodate these vehicles, while licensing and insurance inconsistencies exacerbate barriers to access. These regulatory challenges not only suppress consumer adoption but also hinder domestic manufacturing and job growth. Addressing these issues through cohesive policies and infrastructure planning could unlock significant market potential, benefiting both businesses and underserved communities.
What’s the problem with LUVs? A patchwork of policies
Despite the upsides, regulatory uncertainty (read: non-existent or ill-fitting policies) present challenges to using an LUV or operating a business that produces or relies on these vehicles. Policies, operational guidelines, and restrictions are hard to understand for users and officials alike: Where should they park? Can they use public charging infrastructure? Where can they be ridden/driven? Cityfi regularly engages with the private sector and companies in this space, who also struggle with the uncertainty and inconsistency, which impacts product design, operating procedures, and their ability to plan for and grow in new markets to reach profitability and sustainability. We are increasingly seeing two concerning trends:
- Policy in a vacuum. Individual cities and states are beginning to develop separate, isolated, and inconsistent definitions and regulations for LUVs. This leaves a patchwork of policies and inconsistent classification, operating rules and management across markets. For example, in Pennsylvania, electric quadcycles do not fit neatly into any existing vehicle category while New York classifies some LUVs as bicycles, allowing them in bike lanes but limiting uses. This place-by-place policy development also undermines regional connectivity, which is typically a cornerstone of mobility planning and charging infrastructure planning.
- Reactive policy. Reactive policies are often misaligned with desired outcomes and community goals, priorities, and constraints. Overly reactive measures unnecessarily restrict ultralight vehicles and the benefits they might bring to affordability and access. We have seen this reaction with other emerging mobility innovations, such as dockless e-scooter programs. Reactive policies have included rapidly developed laws that limit use or sweeping bans in response to isolated incidents. These policies, while well-intentioned, stymie or penalize innovation — often to the detriment of larger societal goals. They do not address the root causes of safety concerns, and limit the ability of cities and states to meet climate and safety goals.
These behaviors are not deleterious at face value. Municipalities need to respond to new mobility technologies emerging that operate in their right of way and leverage their charging infrastructure. However, at scale the above approaches not only limit the adoption of LUVs but also perpetuate reliance on larger, less sustainable vehicles, missing an opportunity to address climate and equity goals effectively. Without regulatory tailwinds that ease entering and growing in new markets, the industry may stagnate. Well-intended but poorly executed policies can often exacerbate mobility challenges rather than solve them.
So, what are we doing about it?
If you know Cityfi, you know that we are not going to sit back when we identify an opportunity to advance clean, affordable mobility through policy. This is what gets us out of bed in the morning. So, what are we doing? We are rolling up our sleeves and doing what we do best: convening a diverse, cross-functional collaborative to uncover shared ideas and innovate to solve novel challenges.
Policy is key to scaling electric mobility solutions. Strong policy is predictable and consistent while also enabling flexibility and adaptability. To help LUVs reach their full adoption potential, we need a unified framework that harmonizes policy across the country to make it more predictable and consistent. This work to harmonize policies around LUVs isn’t just about enabling a new vehicle type; it’s about reimagining how we move. By creating a more consistent regulatory environment, we can reduce vehicle miles traveled, lower emissions, and improve safety for all road users.
States, cities, and industry must collaborate to design thoughtful forward-leaning regulations and guidelines that anticipate and are responsive to the needs of each sector. This starts with fostering a dialogue and building consensus around the vision and desired outcomes for these vehicles, which will set the stage for policy that regulates them. With a foundational vision and goals in place, a national framework will ensure harmony and ensure greater consistency across the vast number of codes and policies that govern LUVs including state motor vehicle regulations and local ordinances and regulations. The federal government has defined certain categories of vehicles but lacks a broader overarching framework for all of the various vehicle types under the LUV umbrella.
Cityfi, Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC), and the Urban Freight Lab (UFL) are spearheading the cross-sector working group to tackle these very policy and operational challenges to LUV adoption. Through this initiative, we are bringing together policymakers, private industry, and community stakeholders to craft a harmonized policy framework. Combining the research and subject matter expertise of SUMC and UFL with Cityfi’s facilitation and policy development chops, we will work across sectors to craft practical solutions to address this timely and business-critical problem.
Recognizing the critical go-to-market need, this effort was awarded a Communities Taking Charge Accelerator grant from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. We are excited to leverage this additional capacity and resources to bolster the effort to broaden its reach.
Progress is rarely linear, but this kind of public-private collaboration is vital to smoothing the way for meaningful change. By focusing on shared solutions, we can ensure the opportunities for innovation and equitable mobility endure.
We are in the planning phases of the effort now. Let us know what you think. Ready to fall in LUV? To learn more about or participate, contact us at sarah@cityfi.co.
