Revolution in city transport
If you’ve been in central Brisbane recently, you will know there is a new visitor in town. Lime escooters have popped up all over the CBD and neighbouring suburbs. It’s early days for this new mobility provider, so we can’t say with certainty if this is a permanent fixture, write transport researchers Benjamin Kaufman and Matthew Burke about the Brisbane trial and its implications.
TRANSPORT disruption makes life difficult for policymakers and transport agencies.
Queensland at first attempted to deter illegal ridesharing but then legalised Uber and Ola in response to public demand. Escooter sharing systems might be just as transformative for people’s travel.
You can download an app, sign up quickly and for only a dollar unlock a scooter, hit the accelerator and zip down the street at up to 25kmh. Scooters can be picked up and dropped off on footpaths throughout the central city. They offer lowcost travel and produce low carbon emissions.
Previously, North American cities, such as San Francisco and Washington DC, were inundated with escooters. In response, some cities banned escooters outright. Others used regulations to control the new players.
The trial in Brisbane is helping the city and state see if it works and determine an appropriate regulatory approach. Lime was initially given a “temporary pass in Brisbane”, allowing up to 500 escooters. As long as riders wore helmets (either provided by Lime and attached to each scooter, or bringyourown) and rode them responsibly, there would be no problem.
Kudos to the Queensland transport minister and his department for being the first in Australia to allow a trial and, more recently, for improving the regulation of these
operations. Well done also to Brisbane City Council for allowing the trial in the central business district and working with Lime on the rollout. It was especially helpful that the council’s contract with its bikeshare operator did not prevent escooters from competing for riders.
When you take off on one of these escooters, it is liberating. If you’ve used a kick scooter before, even as a child, these new versions are relatively intuitive to ride.
The electric motor means Brisbane’s hills are suddenly no problem. A trip from our South Bank campus across the river and through the botanic gardens to connect to a downtown meeting took six minutes and cost just over $3.
No other mode of transport would compete in terms of either time or cost for such trips, unless you bring your own bike or escooter with you into town.
Thousands of residents and tourists are using the escooters in Brisbane each day. Our sources tell us more than 100,000 users have made more than 300,000 trips since the midNovember launch.
There are reports of injuries from falling off the scooters.
This highlights a need to take it easy your first few trips, to look for problems on any scooter you hire and to wear your helmet.