Auckland Lime e-scooters operating concession extended to March

Thursday, 10 January 2019

Auckland Council has confirmed the trial period for Lime e-scooters has been extended until March, with the company wanting to branch out to other parts of the city.

Council Chief Operating Officer Dean Kimpton, Auckland Transport Chief Executive Shane Ellison and Lime launcher Hank Rowe made the announcement on Thursday morning.

About 1000 e-scooters arrived in New Zealand in October 2018. They were distributed to Auckland and Christchurch, pegged as easier-to-ride alternatives to bicycles.

Renting one costs $1 plus 30 cents a minute, the equivalent of $18 an hour. Riders must be 18 to use the scooters.

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Ellison said extending the trial would give a 'picture of the demand for and use of e-scooters in our city and enable a clear way of managing that demand in the future'.

It would also allow AT and the council to get more telling figures from organisations such as ACC in terms of injury numbers.

Safety issues were the main priority, he said. 'Electric scooters can be ridden on footpaths, roads and separated cycleways – that means they share their path with people, cars and bikes – so safety considerations must be a priority.'

As part of the extension, Lime had also agreed to have 'ambassadors' in the city who would educate riders about safety.

Pop-up tents would also be set up in the city centre for demonstrations and safety training.

Rowe said having pop-up events and roaming ambassadors in other parts of the country would have to be discussed with their local councils. 

Kimpton said as part of the extension, Lime had asked to increase the number of e-scooters in Auckland and expand to other parts of the city including Manukau, Henderson and Northcote.

He said these requests were still being discussed and the council had yet to agree to it.

In 2018, Auckland Council announced a trial period for the scooters that was meant to expire on January 14. Earlier this month, it was announced that the e-scooters trial would be extended until the end of March.

Safety concerns about Lime e-scooters have divided politicians, medical professionals and members of the public since they hit the pavements.In November 2018, Auckland Council launched its Scoot Safe campaign - spending about $10,000 on posters, bus stop signs and social media posts.

At the time, Mayor Phil Goff said the 'low-cost' safety campaign was the first step in reducing ACC and injury numbers. 

Ellison said it was still too early to see the results of the campaign.

'That's why over the next 10 weeks, it's a trial - we get to do a number of other initiatives to get better safety outcomes, and to see what works and what doesn't work,' Ellison said. 

Despite the safety concerns, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter said e-scooters offered real benefits and she wanted to wait until the Lime scooter trial was complete before seeing if further regulation was required.

'I don't want to rush to over-regulate e-scooters and waiting for the trial to run its course will ensure we have real-world data and experience to base our decisions on,' Genter said.

The extension in time for the trial would give the council and AT more time to assess Lime's trial and decide whether Lime and other similar services would be able to operate in the super city long term - and whether any more safety restrictions would be rolled out.

The plan to extend Lime's licence was revealed in an internal email, which Stuff obtained. The email was sent by the mayor's principal transport advisor, Rory Palmer.

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