A new collaboration between electric scooter company Hopp and the Strætó bus service could make it possible for commuters to easily transfer from bus to scooter using the same app, Vísir reports.
When Hopp launched in Reykjavík in 2019, many observers thought it was a death knell for Strætó—that given the option of jumping on an e-scooter, many riders would stop taking the bus entirely. This hasn’t proven to be the case, though. In fact, the two transport modes seem to complement one another, as evidenced by the e-scooters often strewn around city bus shelters.
Two modes of transit, one app
Hopp was started by software developers and so it only makes sense that they’d be thinking about new ways to integrate their own software and app with Strætó’s. Hopp CEO Sæunn Ósk Unnsteinsdóttir says she believes it should be possible, for instance, for the company’s e-scooters to pop up on the bus map in the Strætó app.
“This is, of course, super important, because we know people are starting to pick up the Hopp app to look for scooters when they’re on the bus and coming into the city, for instance,” she explained.
Both Hopp and Strætó would also like it to be possible to use the same app to pay for a trip that is split between bus and scooter.
The technology exists
“Whether it’s a credit with Hopp or [the Strætó app] redirects you to the Hopp app, these are just technical implementations that need to happen when the conversation gets underway,” continued Sæunn. Strætó CEO Jóhannes Rúnarsson agrees. The technology exists, he says, it’s just a matter of kick-starting the process.
Other e-scooters have entered the Icelandic market, but Hopp is still the scooter of choice in Reykjavík, and in Iceland more generally. Outside of the capital, the company also has fleets in Akranes, Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, Hveragerði, Reykjanesbær, Selfoss, and the Westman Islands. Abroad, it has e-scooters in three cities in Spain, as well as Norway, Greece, and the Faroe Islands. Hopp records some 6,000 trips a day on its scooters and Sæunn foresees a day where there are e-scooter docks next to every bus station in the city. The company now employs 50 people and is growing its fleet from 1,000 scooters around the capital to 3,000. It is also looking to expand into nearby Árbær and Grafarvogur, as well as a number of other towns in Iceland and abroad (Poland, Hungary, Italy) in the coming year.
