Green light for 1000 scooters to ride on Hamilton footpaths
Electric scooters will continue to be a familiar sight – and also a potential danger – on Hamilton footpaths for years to come.
Hamilton City Council’s infrastructure operations committee has given the thumbs up to ‘‘personal hire devices’’ being allowed to operate indefinitely in the city – and opening up the previously exclusive arrangement with Lime Scooters to limited competition.
However, some around the council table still have misgivings about the potential for calamitous scooterpedestrian mishaps, with up to 1000 of the two-wheeled mechanisms soon to be whizzing hither and yon.
There are about 430 Lime scooters operating in Hamilton at the moment.
Councillor Sarah Thomson said she had heard from the disabled community and older residents that sharing the footpath with scooter riders could be terrifying, and she had recently experienced a close call herself.
‘‘I was coming around a corner, I was pushing [my son] Leo in a pram and I nearly collided with someone riding a scooter. Leo, who is 10-and-a-half months old, would have been the first one hit.’’
Through its biking and micromobility programme, the council is endeavouring to create a network of cycleways that would allow scooter riders to travel at speed without endangering others. ‘‘It concerns everyone using our footpaths that we don’t have appropriate space for these scooters, and it’s critical that we invest in that space,’’ Thomson said.
In approving the ongoing presence of the scooters, the committee added numerous caveats to their operation, including a late stipulation from deputy mayor Geoff Taylor that three-monthly reports be made to the committee on how the scooter scene is faring, and whether the companies and riders are behaving themselves.
‘‘It’s fair enough that at this stage we open it up to competition,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘What does worry me is how many scooters the city can handle.’’
The committee also moved that, in opening the field to competition, there shall be no more than three approved hire companies and no more than 1000 devices operating in the city at any one time.
Public liability insurance worth $2 million will also be required from each operator, and they will also need to contribute $10,000 towards a council fund for safety education programmes.
Taylor said he did not want to put too many stumbling blocks in the way of scooter operators. ‘‘I would hate for this decision to lead to a situation where we suddenly found Lime had pulled out … Scooters have become a very important part of this city.’’
Cr Martin Gallagher mentioned he had also endured a recent scooter scare.
‘‘I obviously rank Leo higher than myself, but I had a very similar weird and very scary experience.’’
Earlier, the meeting was addressed by Adam Muirson, the regional manager of Neuron Mobility, one of the companies that could potentially be a competitor to Lime in Hamilton. Neuron scooters had larger wheels, a wider deck and came with helmets.
Muirson said Neuron riders in Brisbane had been ‘‘financially incentivised’’ to don the helmets on their journeys.
‘‘It worked so well we rolled it out in all cities in all countries, regardless of whether there was a legal requirement to do so.’’
The committee decision will go before the next meeting of the full council in June to be ratified.