Micro-mobility’s greatest contribution may lie in how it transforms cities over time. As fewer cars are needed, parking areas and traffic lanes can become green spaces, safer walking routes and places for social connection. These changes can reinforce one another, enabling healthier lifestyles, stronger neighbourhoods and deeper emissions reductions than individual trip comparisons reveal. The central question therefore shifts from which vehicle a journey replaces to what people need to access and how cities can provide it with fewer resources. Realising this potential requires coordinated urban planning, public–private collaboration and investment that rewards improvements in wellbeing alongside avoided emissions and material use. By connecting shared and active mobility with proximity-based urban design, cities and mobility providers can help create the conditions for flourishing lives within planetary boundaries.