Brisbane is one of the world’s top adopters of Lime scooters

Brisbane’s quick adoption of e-scooters makes it one of its top cities globally. We caught up with founder of Lime scooters Toby Sun.

THE global chief of shareable transportation company Lime has revealed Brisbane has been one of the world’s fastest adopters of e-scooters, eclipsing most of the 130 cities where the company has launched.

Toby Sun, whose sharable bike concept for a Carolina university has morphed into a global behemoth valued at $US4 billion ($5.6 billion), said more than 300,000 trips had been taken on the scooters since their launch late last year.

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In an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail, Mr Sun said people were leaving their cars at home, with scooters being regularly ridden to suburban streets well outside the city zone.

Mayank Mittal, Vinicius Machado Campos and Mitchell Price on Lime scooters in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. Picture: AAP/Claudia Baxter

Mr Sun said Paris had been the company’s breakaway success but Brisbane was not far behind the French capital.

“I would encourage you to go to Paris and see the people getting around,” he said.

“Paris is now the single largest market for us globally. Lime is helping replace 20 to 30 per cent of the car use.

“And we are seeing that in Brisbane as well and it is very exciting. People are using it as part of their daily commute and getting out of their cars.”

More than 100,000 Brisbane riders have downloaded the app and used the scooters since the trial began in November.

A woman rides a Lime scooter along the boardwalk in Brisbane’s CBD. Picture: AAP/John Gass

While there have been injuries, complaints and warning about litigation risk from no-win, no-fee lawyers, Mr Sun said the number of accidents in Brisbane had been significantly less than other cities.

“Generally, we have seen much better behaviour with less injuries and accidents,” he said.

“We don’t know why but we do see people have been behaving better compared to other global markets.”

Injury rates in every market declined once riders become more experienced, he said.

A Lime user rides a scooter across Victoria Bridge in Brisbane’s CBD. Picture: AAP/Albert Perez

While Brisbane has permitted the scooters, which travel at speeds of up to 27km/h, on footpaths only, Mr Sun said this was not his preference.

“My preference is on the road with dedicated lanes,” he said.

“In markets where there are bike lanes we encourage people to use them.”

Mr Sun said there was a “chicken and egg” scenario in cities where there was not enough bikes to justify lanes but scooters might change that.