This was published 5 months ago
Scooter numbers to climb as Lime prepares Brisbane return
Even more electric scooters will soon be on Brisbane streets, as the city’s original scooter hire scheme prepares its return this year.
As part of a new deal with Brisbane City Council, San Francisco-based Lime would provide 1700 e-scooters and 400 e-bikes. The “Gen4” green machines would replace Singaporean company Neuron’s orange-coloured fleet.
Lime’s “Gen4” e-bike and e-scooters on the streets of Melbourne.
Lime burst on the Brisbane scene in 2018, when 900 scooters appeared on the city streets virtually overnight.
In 2021, Lime was squeezed out of the Brisbane market, when the council awarded contracts to competitors Neuron and the purple-branded Beam.
A spokeswoman for Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said a “competitive market process” last year established a new operating agreement for e-scooters and e-bikes, which would start on July 22.
“The two operators are Beam Mobility and the Lime Network,” she said, confirming Neuron’s departure from the Brisbane market.
Under the council’s current agreement with Neuron and Beam, 2350 rental e-scooters and 800 e-bikes were distributed in Brisbane – a number that had already steadily risen from early limits.
And that number seemed destined to rise again.
“The number of e-scooters and e-bikes permitted are expected to gradually increase based on use and popularity,” Schrinner’s spokeswoman said.
Ahead of its Brisbane relaunch, Lime regional general manager Hugo Burt-Morris said there had been a 135 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of trips taken on the company’s vehicles in Australia.
“Brisbane has proven to be a world leader in micromobility, and we think this position will only continue to grow once the launch of our Gen4 vehicles occurs,” he said.
“Our innovative hardware design and intuitive technology make it fun and easy for people to replace car trips. All of Lime’s vehicles are designed in-house to last longer and with safety and comfort in mind, which is what sets us apart from the competition.”
The new scooters will have dual hand brakes, a lower baseboard and larger front wheels. The bikes will include phone holders, increased motor power for hills and automatic two-speed transmissions.
In 2019, during Lime’s first foray into Brisbane, the first reported Australian death on one of its scooters was recorded at South Brisbane.
Last year, an early-morning ride on a rented e-scooter ended with the death of a man, who had gone over the handlebars when his scooter clipped a gutter in Fortitude Valley.
Paris, Brisbane’s fellow Olympic city, banned rental e-scooters last year after locals overwhelmingly voted in a referendum to remove the battery-powered devices.