Review: We try out the Neuron E-scooters for you ... ‘Lots of fun but not fast enough’

THE E-scooter craze has hit Darwin: We take the bright orange two-wheeled contraptions out for a spin and review them for you

Julian Smith takes a Neuron E-scooter for a scoot around the Darwin Waterfront. Picture: Che Chorley

• E-scooters hit the streets. See the map of where they can be ridden
• 250 electric scooters begin 12-month trial on Darwin streets, footpaths

THE E-scooter craze has hit Darwin and I couldn’t wait to try out the bright orange two-wheeled contraptions.

After eating too many dumplings, a colleague and I spotted two scooters left on Knuckey St and jumped on them.

One of the scooters didn’t have a helmet, surprise.

So we had to take one from another scooter up the road.

They weren’t too hard to get started and the app talks you through how to get them moving.

We wove between office workers, towards the less crowded paths on The Esplanade where we hoped to put the scooters through their paces.

We tried to put the scooters into fast mode and found they only go 15km/h.

Neuron Mobility chief executive Zachary Wang with some of his company’s E-scooters which are being trialled on the streets of Darwin. Picture: Che Chorley.

Safe to say my need for speed was not satisfied, at all.

Perhaps The Esplanade could be rezoned to a faster speed.

But I understand why the Neuron e-scooters have been capped at that speed – undoubtedly someone will hurt themselves on the motorised scooters at some point.

My bet is a drunk on Mitchell St will stack it at 2am after stumbling out of a bar.

We zoomed (slowly) up and down The Esplanade, posed for some photos for the ’gram and then attempted to head back to the NT News office on McMinn St.

It was here that we encountered our second hurdle.

My colleague and I had attempted to ride the scooters on the footpath around Parliament House and past Government House, so as to avoid the crowds on Bennett St.

The scooters weren’t happy with that decision and conked out, leaving us to push them back to Herbert St where we were able to use them.

Again we had to weave through the crowds, some of whom were not happy to see two smiling people on two very bright orange scooters.

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The best part of the trip was zipping down the hill on Bennett St to McMinn St as it felt like we were actually going fast.

All up our scooter trip cost us $9.36 and lasted 22 minutes.

We travelled almost 4km in that time.

Overall it wasn’t a bad way to spend a lunch break.

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— JUDITH AISTHORPE is an NT News journalist, scooter aficionado and closet revhead