Three-month trial on way for e-scooters
New Plymouth’s mayor has received one complaint about e-scooters before they have arrived.
New Plymouth-based company Blip has plans to roll out 50 rental electric scooters in New Plymouth and has also made applications to councils in Auckland, Tauranga and Rotorua.
At Tuesday’s Te Huinga Taumatua Committee, councillors discussed an officers’ recommendation to give the company a three-month trial on New Plymouth streets.
‘‘I have already received my first complaint about this a couple of weeks ago following a report in the Taranaki Daily News,’’ mayor Neil Holdom told the committee.
An older gentleman had contacted him concerned about the risk of collisions, he said.
Holdom said he had done some research on the first car accident in 1869. ‘‘Had we banned the automobile back then what a different world we may have today.
‘‘I think it’s very cool and exciting technology.
‘‘This is the way of the future.’’ The trial begins this month and allows the scooters to operate in central New Plymouth, infrastructure manager David Langford said.
‘‘It does include the CBD area and it includes the Coastal Walkway from about the port down to Te Rewa Rewa bridge.
‘‘They are considered to be a low-powered motor vehicle that is allowed to be used on both the road and the footpath, and the determining factor is the size of the wheels.’’
However, Blip recommends riding only on footpaths.
Langford said they had not been approached by Lime Scooters but they had been approached by another company also looking to install electric bike stations in the CBD.
The scooters will be restrained to 15kmh and, under the Memorandum of Understanding, Blip will advise the council of any incidents as soon as possible.
The scooters must be removed from the public place by midnight each day, and they will be banned from Pukekura Park.
E-scooters fall outside the Skateboards bylaw because they are propelled by an electric motor, but data from the trial will be considered when the bylaw is reviewed in 2020.
Councillor Harry Duynhoven compared the new technology to when his father got a mobility scooter. ‘‘Mobility scooters replaced wheelchairs. When my dad was unable to drive he could still get to where he wanted to go, most places, by his mobility scooter. It was a huge difference in his life,’’ he said.