Is Micromobility the real transport disruptor?

This story first appeared in the february issue of Evtalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

They’ve been on the ground in New Zealand less than six months but hardly a week has gone by without a mention of Lime electric scooters.

It’s become a favorite watercooler discussion topic, and it seems we can’t get enough of reading about and discussing them and riding them.

The media coverage has been mixed, and with some outright misleading coverage inciting the masses – for example “Kiwi football legend Wynton Rufer out of coma after Lime scooter accident” was one headline now corrected by a major daily paper.

At a recent press conference extending their trial in Auckland Lime’s, Mitchell Price said that Auckland has proven to be one of the best performing cities for them, with very high ridership.While Auckland Council’s Dean Kimpton noted that privately owned e-scooter usage has also grown.

So, what is the buzz all about?
E-scooters and e-bikes are not that new – the EVtalk team has been reviewing various models for more than a year.We’ve had bike share and car share schemes for years too.Auckland’s CityHop was first off the mark back in 2006 and its fleet continues to grow with more PHEVs recently added.

What makes Lime such a hot topic in my mind is down to a few factors.

The rapid fleet roll-out, the cheap price, and simplicity.Taking your first trip only requires downloading an app, creating an account in minutes then spending a few dollars.

The fact that its electric and guilt-free transport is also part of the appeal, as EV drivers well know, and Lime capitalises on that by reminding users that they’ve saved C02.

For ITS NZ the scooters tick several boxes to fit within intelligent transport, being a tech-enabled transport that’s sustainable, and very efficient for short urban trips.

ITS New Zealand’s “Micro” event on February 19 aims to unpack some of the hype around “Micromobility”, a phrase coined by technology analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco, aimed to encapsulate all the new modes under 500kg.Dediu and Oliver Bruce, formerly of Uber NZ, have been examining the explosion of small personal vehicles in their Micromobility podcast.

While scooters, hoverboards, electric skateboards and e-bikes are still a novelty, there are lots of questions being raised in regard to safety and real estate, ie, where should they be free to operate and where should they be parked?
Finding a balance between benefits and challenges is something that befalls almost every transport mode.

So far none are perfect, so some perspective is needed, but that’s not to say we shouldn’t try to find those answers and we look forward to starting that discussion among experts.