TE AWAMUTU NEWS | 1
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2020
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FEBRUARY 21, 2020
Lime looks at Waipā Waipā district is being encouraged to follow Hamilton in introducing electric scooters to the district. The pay as you ride scooters were put on Hamilton streets last August and Lime spokesman Robert Jeromson said in November there were already plans to double the numbers to more than 400. At the time he said the company was always getting requests for Lime scooters in new areas, “and we will continue to explore how we can expand our operations to complement existing public transport options.” Waipā mayor Jim Mylchreest has confirmed the council has had discussions with Lime and the company will present a proposal for introducing the scooters. The company told the News it had a vision for micro-mobility to be part of a transport “solution” for wider regions that include the neighbouring areas of urban centres. “As part of this, we have ongoing conversations with councils throughout New Zealand, including the Waipa District,” Lauren Mentjox, Lime Public Affairs Manager, NZ said. The news of Waipā interest will not win universal support – there have been calls for them to be banned. And ACC has reported that the number of e-scooter accidents or injuries a month rose from six to 35 following the launch of
Lime scooters. Stuff reported this month e-scooter injuries had cost taxpayers more than $7 million in New Zealand since their launch in October 2018 and ACC had recorded 4382 e-scooter injury claims to January this year. But the e-scooter phenomenon, which sees users download an app which enables them to find and unlock the scooters and pay as they ride is huge – around five million rides have already been taken across the country. The use of Lime scooters is similar to the way people use an app on their smartphones to hail and pay for a Uber taxi. Lime operates in 130 markets and 25 countries promotes itself as the largest operator of shared scooter services in New Zealand, with fleets in Hamilton, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Selwyn District. The playing field for commercially operated scooters is growing – it includes Lime, Waves, Beam, Flamingo, Jump and Neuron. Lime had a setback late in December when Auckland Council announced Lime and Wave scooters would lose their licences due to safety concerns. That resulted in 950 Lime scooters being removed from the streets after 13 months and 2.3 million trips by the 300,000 riders there. The news of Lime’s overtures comes as the Waikato Regional Council announces
a significant lift in the use of public transport. The council says improved regional transport services and free bus travel for youth and people with disabilities in Hamilton saw patronage skyrocket on the BUSIT service. The total number of passengers boarding, as distinct from transferring from other services, was up 23.21% to 220,123. It said additional evening trips between Hamilton and Cambridge and Hamilton and Te Awamutu has seen patronage climb 10.83 per cent and 14.51 per cent respectively in January compared to last year. For Cambridge that equated to 3403 customers boarding in January and Te Awamutu 4191. Waikato Regional Council chair Russ Rimmington says the numbers of people using BUSIT’s service has been climbing since 2016 when the council started steadily rolling out the improvements. Cr Rimmington says the council is also looking at other improvements, such as having the ability to deliver a demand response to public transport in rural areas, having staff who specialise in rural solutions and improved public transport services for the Coromandel Peninsula and Waipā district.
Haruka Yoshikawa, a student from Osaka, Japan, studying at Waikato University, tests one of the Lime scooters on Hamilton streets.
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