Scooter Rental vs Scooter Subscription: Which is Better?
For a few years, it seemed as if our city streets would soon belong solely to shared electric scooters and bikes. The prospect seemed to enrage as many people as it excited, and there was much wrangling over the new micro-mobility transportation landscape.
Even if you managed to stay above the fray, you surely saw a photo or two of discarded rental scooters piled high, maybe on fire, in an overly aggressive symbol of protest.
Then, bit by bit, many city officials, governments, and share companies started to iron out their differences. This was probably in response to millions of commuters, tourists, and every kind of urban traveller embracing this convenient, fun, and, most of all, affordable transportation revolution.
The rising costs of shared scooters

Shared electric vehicles solve many a last-mile problem at a very reasonable cost that, until recently, rivaled the costs of public transportation. But as Alana Semuels reported at Time magazine, price increases became “part of a larger trend across the sharing economy” just as widespread adoption of shareable electric vehicles took hold in cities worldwide.
She continued by saying that “On-demand services of all kinds have been significantly subsidized by investors as a means of attracting users with low prices,” Semuels writes. “But as companies like Uber and Lyft go public and face shareholder pressure to make money, those subsidies are ending.”
On top of this, a lot of the overheads and rapid expansions of these companies were being supported by venture capitalists, promoting cheap rates to entice a growing number of riders in more and more cities around the world.
Several experts argue that cities should subsidize shared services, which would in turn bolster public transportation systems themselves facing plummeting revenues due to the coronavirus.
But at the moment, “that scooter ride is going to cost you more,” The Washington Post explains. In one example, a Washington, D.C. area commuter found that a ride previously costing $2.80 had increased to $7. “Now I don’t see this as a commuting option at all anymore because it is outrageously expensive,” the government contractor told the newspaper. “It’s more expensive to rent a little electronic scooter than hire an Uber car.”
At that price, he could expect to pay upwards of $280 for a month of round-trip commutes. Annually, that adds up to more than triple the cost for customers of purchasing a premium, high-performance scooter like the Unagi Model One, and more and more commuters are choosing that option.
The convenience and peace of mind of owning an electric scooter for a fraction of the cost of renting has become particularly attractive, especially since the pandemic where people generated a whole host of new transportation frustrations.
Can electric scooter subscription services save sharing
To combat this backlash and bring their costs back down to reasonable levels, and also to encourage ridership again following COVID fears, several share companies like Lime and Bird have recently started offering far more affordable subscription services.
What electric scooter subscription services are there
The LimePass, a weekly subscription service announced by the company in 2019 in cities in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, waived the unlock fee for rentals for a cost of $4.99 per week in San Francisco. In recent years this has expanded around the world in different iterations, for example, a 24hr day pass in Lisbon, Portugal will cost the user 10 euros in 2022.
This same unlimited day pass in Los Angeles will cost around $14.99 at the time of writing. Subscribers to the service still ride rental scooters and are subject to all the limitations of sharing, including a lack of control over whether a vehicle is available when they need it, and no power over the model of the two wheeler they book on their app.

Moreover, some subscription options come with daily ride limits of five or ten rides per day, which might leave high-use, high-mobility subscribers—those, for example, who use electric scooters to make deliveries—constantly wondering whether they’ve exceeded their quota.
Bird’s first subscription, also launched in 2019, does offer more for less than Lime’s premier option. For a relatively low monthly fee of $24.99, the company delivers a scooter to subscribers that they can use as much as they like until they decide to cancel.
The problem, The Verge found, is that the scooter is a cheaper, inferior model to their rental models, with a smaller battery and slower top speed. “If you want the best scooter Bird provides,” they note, “you’ll soon be able to buy one outright for $1,299.”
Times have changed and subscription services are always being updated, but in just the few years since that first launch, a top-tier commuter scooter like the Unagi Model One will set you back a lot less than a thousand.

Unagi’s Subscription Service
For less than the Bird One, riders who want to own an electric scooter can purchase the dual motor Unagi Model One , one of the best-reviewed, most stylish electric scooters on the market. Its sleek and lightweight carbon fiber frame makes it stand out from other cheaper options on the market, and its the model that comes with the Unagi all-access plan.
Unagi offers incredible incentives for those who subscribe, including a 30-day, no risk, “no questions asked” trial and financing for under $50 a month. So for those not yet ready, or unable, to commit to the cost of ownership, the Unagi subscription service beats the best available options from share companies.
For riders in New York and Los Angeles, it's not new news at all, as Unagi All-Access has been available since early August 2020.
For less than $15 a week (or the cost of one long-distance scooter ride), subscribers can ride one of the top-tier high-performance Unagi scooters —the same scooter they'll find available for purchase—delivered directly to their door within 2-3 business days.
The unagi plans come with full insurance included for riders, and offer a replacement scooter in case of damage until your own model is repaired. They are also fully serviced before being shipped out so there are no worries for the subscriber regarding the maintenance.

Why Unagi trumps other subscription services
Subscribers can choose to pay monthly or annually for their e scooter, with an agreeable $50 setup fee. The monthly option is less than a 30-day unlimited MetroCard in New York City and a 30-day Metro pass in L.A. , and far below the cost of riding shared scooters regularly without a subscription.
While share companies’ subscription services may cost less in your city at the moment, they also offer far less in return. Included in the Unagi subscription is total peace of mind.
Subscribers can ride their scooter as little or as often as they like; the scooter is insured against theft and damage; and if anything goes wrong, Unagi will send a replacement within 24 hours. And if for some reason it doesn’t work out, subscribers can cancel anytime, with no questions asked.
The news of sharing subscription services is undoubtedly welcome for commuters, but Unagi All-Access service offers (in our opinion) the ultimate in flexible, fun commuting, or just riding around town: A fully insured, Tesla-quality Unagi scooter at less than the cost of most monthly subway passes.

Camping + Electric Scooters: The Dynamic Duo You Never Thought Of
Coronavirus has changed the way we travel, and we like to think this will be for the better in the future. While flying off to your favorite international destination may have seemed like a great idea before ... and border closures made it impossible, all that air travel wasn’t doing the planet any favors

Who Invented the Scooter?
Scooters didn't just start as an alternative ride for popping tricks in the skatepark, in fact, they've been around for a really long time. These days it's quite common for people to own all manner of electric scooters and even electric mopeds, but who invented the scooter?

Scooter Rental vs Scooter Subscription: Which is Better?
For a few years, it seemed as if city streets would soon belong to shared electric scooters and bikes. The prospect seemed to enrage as many people as it excited, and there was much wrangling over the new micromobility transportation…

Rideshare, Subway, or Scooter: The Fastest Way to Commute
Commuting is terrible, and not only in the ordinary sense of frustrating and annoying. The problem has reached the level of a public health crisis. It wastes an “astonishing” amount of “human potential,” claims The Washington Post, drains our energy…

Electric Scooters: Range vs Weight
Advances in battery technology have led to a market filled with high-quality electric scooters for everything from tooling around the neighborhood to competitive off-road racing. It’s an exciting time to buy a scooter, but also a confusing time, given the…

Electric Bikes vs Electric Scooters: Which One Should You Choose?
Micromobility has arrived. Personal electric vehicles are solving last mile problems and replacing car trips as major cities move away from car-centric infrastructure. Increasingly, commuters are realizing how much faster and easier it is to get to work on an…

Is It Worth Buying an Electric Scooter?
As cities become more crowded and traffic worsens by the year, the old ways of commuting have become increasingly unsustainable. So, is it worth buying yourself an electric scooter?

Getting Scooters to Covid-19 First Responders
The Covid-19 crisis has ushered in a period of sickness, fear, confusion, and fatigue across the planet. Naturally, we're all looking for a little hope. At Unagi, we're trying to carve out a humble corner of optimism by helping the…

Chicago’s North Side: 5 Wellness-Inspired Stops in the Windy City
Home to Wrigley field, beautiful skyscrapers, large parks, and public beaches along Lake Michigan, the North Side of Chicago is one of the most recognizable areas of the Windy City. The district is bordered by the Chicago River, the West…

Unagi, Deconstructed: How An E-Scooter Works
It’s not magic. It might look like a bespelled work of Byzantine machinery unearthed, reformed, and refitted for a new age, but the electrical chariots of modernity are powered by ions, not alchemy. To satisfy the voracious cravings of our…

Lower East Side: 4 Insider Hangouts in NYC’s Grit-Trendy Neighborhood
Complaints of rapid gentrification are nothing new to New York City. Beginning with a sharp decrease in crime stemming from Mayor Giuliani’s aggressive broken window policing of New York in the 1990s, wealth has poured, settled, rearranged, and redeployed across…

North Venice: 6 Stops in Scooter Mecca
Venice holds a special place in California lore. From its purple sunsets and quiet canals to the bombast and theatrically of its ocean front walk, the beachside town retains prime position in the tapestry of the internationally exported West Coast…

Honolulu: 4 Stops to Feel The Mana
In the Spring of 1795, at the end of his campaign to unify the Hawaiin islands, the great King Kamehameha I divided his army to engage the forces of his rival Kalanikupule on the southeastern portion of O’ahu. While one…

Frogtown: 7 Spots in LA’s Hidden Paradise
There was a young man, sitting on the cement bank of a river, fishing for carp, and the wind rose around him. A voyeur might find himself compelled to question his state of awareness, but no amount of blinking or…

Why owning an Unagi beats using Rideshare Scooters
It’s been eight years since Uber’s historic beta launch in San Francisco, and, despite a deluge of complaints levied by traditional transportation competitors, governments, and customers, the Uber model – and ridesharing at large – has become ubiquitous. Ease of…

A Case For Electric Scooter Ownership: The Unagi Manifesto
The Rapid Growth of the E-Scooter Ownership Market A study created jointly by Unagi Scooters and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has found that elect estimate that 35% of scooter riders will prefer to own rather than rent,...

Your Morning Commute - Reviewing Cost vs Convenience
Unagi is proud to announce the launch of its Commute Calculator! As urban commute routes grow in volume and density, prospective commuters need access to current, up-to-date travel information in order to make informed decisions on how to get around.…

Micro-Mobility Reconnects Us by Supporting Local Culture and Sustainable Development
“Nice neighborhood you’ve got there. Sure would be a shame if someone put a highway through it.” So says the text over the face of Robert Moses in a meme that launched the Facebook group “New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented…

Unagi Neighborhoods: Little Tokyo
Little Tokyo Los Angeles is not the best representation of European cross-continental culture. The French, Italians, Russians, and most of the great Western and Eastern European migrant groups of the 19th and 20th centuries set up footholds in New York,…

4 Unagi Approved Dates: NYC, LA, SF, MIA
We get it. Dating can be tough. The googling, the yelping, the planning, the reservations, the transportation. . . the process can be overwhelming. Making a good first impression can also be a source of anxiety for millions of single…

4 Unagi Approved Dates
We get it. Dating can be tough. The googling, the yelping, the planning, the reservations, the transportation. . . the process can be overwhelming. Making a good first impression can also be a source of anxiety for millions of single…

The Scooter, A History
Two wheels and a plank. It would be a modest beginning for a mode of transportation characterized by peaks and troughs in use and popularity unrivaled by any other contemporary human propellant. Although difficult to pinpoint, it is generally accepted…

Little Tokyo
Los Angeles is not the best representation of European cross-continental culture. The French, Italians, Russians, and most of the great Western and Eastern European migrant groups of the 19th and 20th centuries set up footholds in New York, where their…

Micro Mobility & Local Culture
“Nice neighborhood you’ve got there. Sure would be a shame if someone put a highway through it.” So says the text over the face of Robert Moses in a meme that launched the Facebook group “New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented…

Commute Calculator
Unagi is proud to announce the launch of its Commute Calculator As urban commute routes grow in volume and density, prospective commuters need access to current, up-to-date travel information in order to make informed decisions on how to get around.…