E-bikes ‘fun’ and ‘efficient’
NOTTINGHAM’S yellow e-scooters are “fun, efficient, convenient and cheap”, said the man behind the current trial scheme.
Wind Mobility was chosen in October to operate the project in Nottingham for a year, meaning people working and living in the city can hire an e-scooter for a fee using an app.
Since then, the scooters have covered more than 230,000 rides in the first six months and are understood to have the highest number of journeys covered by a single fleet of electric scooters in the whole of the UK.
There is now a fleet of around 500 scooters on the streets with over 16,000 registered users and around 100 new users every single day.
These have covered over 700,000km in combined trips and 75,000 hours of use.
On average, each scooter is used between five or six times a day.
Its popularity comes despite controversy, with one drunk rider appearing in court, scooters abandoned outside parking bays and people with disabilities worried about their use.
Lukasz Rybak, city operations manager for Wind, said he understood there had been issues, but the scheme was being trialled as new technology and Wind was working to address problems.
Speaking about the benefits of the scheme, he said: “I know that there’s a lot of feedback from happy users who can catch one of our scooters and have a ride to the place where they work if it’s unsociable hours, for instance, and the public transport is not so accessible.
“We are supporting the Government in providing different modes of transport to make sure that people social distance.
“I need to mention that we provide free £25 of credit for all healthcare key workers. They simply need to contact us and provide any proof that they are key workers.
“That’s simply our contribution to appreciate their efforts.
“And it’s about convenience. There’s a lot of parking spots and I believe a lot of people enjoy the service.
“It’s fun, it’s efficient, it’s convenient, it’s cheap.”
Mr Rybak hoped the scheme could become a permanent fixture in Nottingham in the future, with another six months of the trial to go.
He added: “We would be delighted to be able to stay here, increase our fleet, educate people and develop this relationship with the whole community and form a new mode of transport in the city. “We deliver 100 percent green operation. We are committed to reducing the CO2. It is a new technology and it’s getting more and more popular so by all means we’d love to stay here and be considered as a responsible company who cares about our users and the wider public.”
I know that there’s a lot of feedback from happy users
Lukasz Rybak, Wind Mobility