Lime licence likely to be lengthened

An extension of electric scooter rideshare Lime’s licence is being considered this week by the Auckland Council.

It says this will allow a longer trial period and completion of a council-led review.

The council’s licensing and regulatory compliance team will make the decision in consultation with Auckland Transport (AT).

“We’re using the next few days to do a quick recap of the first licence period to see whether the licence needs any tweaks – keeping in mind that it is still part of a trial and this is the time to test licence conditions for new types of commercial operations,” chief operating officer Dean Kimpton says.

“We are also confirming the duration of the extended licence. We initially had a trial period set to run until February 28 but have had some changes occur since the first licences were issued, namely the withdrawal of one operator and the second experiencing a delay in launching.

“One consideration in extending Lime’s licence is the potential for a second operator to still enter the market, therefore giving us some comparison information to include in our review.”

If Lime gets an extension, a licence will be issued later this week.

The end-date will be confirmed when the licence is issued, the council says.

A three-month licence is about $3000, which would extend the period into late March or early April.

Council and AT monitoring has included public feedback, meeting regularly with Lime, liaising and sharing information with other agencies like ACC, the NZ Transport Agency and the Christchurch City Council which has an e-scooter trial running until February.

“We support new modes of transport, including publicly accessible ride-sharing offers like bikes and e-scooters and, as with all transport options, safety is paramount,” Kimpton says.

“Adapting to these new modes also requires us to review how we use our transport ‘corridors’ such as footpaths, cycle ways and roads.”

He says private electric scooter ownership is more popular than ever and safe scooter use applies to everyone.

“Auckland Transport will continue to encourage scooter users to use common sense and share footpaths with all users safely, that includes using your scooter at safe speeds and wearing a helmet.”

A ‘scooterist’s code’ was issued by the two authorities late last year.

It includes staying alert and not using mobile devices when riding, wearing a helmet, riding where it’s safe such as on separated cycleways but not cycleways that are part of the road network, one rider per scooter and taking care around pedestrians and others.