Limes here to stay, despite concerns

Lime scooters were temporarily suspended from Auckland and Dunedin roads on February due to safety concerns, but after a petition garnered 4000 signatures of support, Lime was restored in early March.

More than 400,000 New Zealanders have used Lime 2.3 million times, travelling nearly 1.5 million km across the country.

NZ Transport Agency were reportedly unprepared by the arrival of hundreds of e-scooters from Lime, rival Wave and others. Pedestrians complained about using the same footpath as these e-scooters that can travel up to 25km/h.

Auckland Council has announced it will look over regulations regarding e-scooters and footpath sharing and requesting tender proposals from scooter operators.

Lime head of government strategy and policy Mitchell Price says Lime’s data shows 30 injuries caused by 155 ‘irregular braking incidents,’ but out of two million trips nationwide 30 injuries is only 0.0086% of all Lime trips.

Price would like to see more Lime scooters on Auckland roads to boost education and user experience.

“In a survey last September 30% of Lime users have opened the app and not been able to hire a scooter because there wasn’t one nearby. We propose expanding our service we need more scooters.”

“Our proposals include suggestions for slow-speed zones to better consider pedestrians. Pedestrians do need space on the footpaths but so do micro-mobility solutions like scooters and bikes,” adds Price.

Price has raised footpath-sharing concerns with the transport minister.

Increasing e-scooter numbers will help extend each scooter’s lifespan. The average lifespan for an individual scooter was only 23 scooters, published by an unofficial study in Washington DC, using available Lime data on scooter availability.

“The lifespan of a scooter is measured in many ways, such as how many trips the scooter has done. If there is a cap on scooter quantity in a city, that means they’re working sometimes seven or eight times more than they should be,” says Price.

Lime is worth US $1b, despite being only two years old.

Price urges Auckland Council and Auckland Transport to ‘walk hand in hand’ with Lime and other scooter operators because the micro-mobility market is here to stay.

“I don’t see us being in Auckland for only a month or two. We know our users and a recent survey showed that more than 60% of respondents think Lime should be part of the future of the transport system in Auckland.”