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The Gold Coast City Council has confiscated 23 electric scooters less than a day after a global company launched a scooter ride share service in the city.
Key points:
- Lime halts Gold Coast operations after a day after council starts seizing scooters
- Council says Lime has not sought permission to operate
- Company now says it is halting operations temporarily
The company, Lime, rolled out electric scooters on the Gold Coast on Friday, after rolling out the scooters in Brisbane in November.
But a dispute broke out immediately with the Gold Coast council.
Council transport director Alton Twine told the media on Friday the company was in breach of a local law and would have two hours to move their scooters off the streets.
On Saturday, the council released a statement saying it had taken 22 Lime scooters off Gold Coast streets and one scooter owned by the company I-RIDE.
Mr Twine said Lime needed permission to set up a scooter ride share service and had not approached the council before starting operations on the Gold Coast.
“What we don’t accept in this city is operators just turning up and essentially plonking their products down on city streets and footpaths,” he said.
What is scooter-sharing?
- Scooter-sharing is like bike-sharing, but instead of hiring bicycles you hire motorised foot scooters
- The scooters are designed for the last leg of your journey — from the train or bus to the office
- They are generally fitted with rechargeable batteries that can be charged between uses
- Users are charged a booking fee via an app and then pay for each minute they ride
- There are multiple companies offering schemes in the US
- Some cities have had trouble with the scooters becoming a public nuisance
Mr Twine said council was undertaking a study into the possibility of electric scooter ridesharing on the Gold Coast.
“The issue here is one of public safety — we know that there is already plenty of concerns from the public about scooter use on footpaths and shared paths,” he said.
Lime’s director of government affairs, Mitchell Price, said in a statement they had decided to temporarily cease operations on the Gold Coast and “request the council ensure the same standard for other operations”.
Mr Price said Lime would hold community events in the coming weeks to educate residents about the company’s scooters