WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Kaesahn Healy enjoying an e-scooter ride across He Ara Kotahi cycle bridge and walkway. From Wednesday the public will be able to rent the scooters after dark.
A clean record has rewarded Palmerston North’s electric scooter operators and riders with the availability of late night cruises.
Permits for the city’s three e-scooter operators, Beam, Flamingo and Lime, have been renewed for a further three years and no longer feature time restrictions.
The e-scooters, which previously locked between 11pm and 5am, will be in service all night long from Wednesday this week.
Palmerston North City Council’s acting chief customer officer Kerry-Lee Probert said the performance of the three operators over the past 18 months had been very good, with relatively few issues given more than a million kilometres of pavement had been travelled by riders in that time.
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The change to 24-hour operation reflected the responsible approach taken by most users, she said.
“Having e-scooters available 24 hours a day will make them more usable for shift workers who may rely on them to get to and from work.
To minimise the risk of intoxicated riding, you’ll still need to complete a cognitive test between 9pm and 5am on Fridays and Saturdays to unlock the e-scooter.”
WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Jayden Kaui, left, and Taura Curnow riding through Te Marae o Hine. More than a million kilometres has been traversed by about 500,000 rides in the 19 months since the e-scooters have been introduced in Palmerston North.,
A recent report to the council’s sustainability committee noted Palmerston North had the third largest fleet of e-scooters in New Zealand.
There had been 500,000 rides in just 19 months.
Probert said the success of the accessible and sustainable form of travel could be seen in the numbers, and the scheme fitted well with the council’s goal of enabling more environmentally friendly travel options.
Stuff reported in June there had been a total of 177 requests for service received by the council related to e-scooters – 118 of them about parking, 25 about unsafe riding, and most were in the first month of operation.
Police reported 17 incidents, including eight collisions with a vehicle, one with a pedestrian, three about unsafe riding, two involving thefts and three involving vandalism.
Probert encouraged riders to be considerate when parking e-scooters and not to block footpaths. They should also notify operators if required.
E-scooters can be ridden on the road provided riders keep left. They are not allowed to be ridden in cycle lanes. There’s no legal requirement to wear a helmet.
Concerns about rider behaviour should be reported to police. The operators can be contacted by phone and email:
- Flamingo Scooters: [email protected] , 0800 FLAMINGO
- Beam: [email protected] , 0800 507 676
- Lime Scooters: [email protected] , 0800 467 001
