Picture the scene: You¡¯re running late for work for the second time in a week. It¡¯s a cold winter¡¯s day, your long coat bogging you down as you jog to catch the train. You look at your watch and with desperation realize that you¡¯re never going to make it to the station in time.

Just as you¡¯re about to admit defeat and call your boss, you turn a corner and there ¡ª as if appearing out of thin air ¡ª stands a row of electric miniscooters. Accessing the service¡¯s app on your smartphone, you take off for the station, making it there a cool five minutes before the train departs.

Many of us have been there ¡ª the daily city commute where the distance between home and the station is just a bit too far to be comfortable, and the rushed morning schlep to the office takes on that extra dimension of unwelcome stress.