Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says council don’t want to be killjoys about the new e-scooter sharing service, but he wants safety measures including helmets brought in to protect users and pedestrians.
A week after the new service was launched in Auckland and Christchurch, 41,000 Kiwis had downloaded the app and used a scooter with 14 ACC injury claims related to the scooters.
The scooters are being launched in Auckland and Christchurch, and can be found using a smartphone app. (Source: Other)
“I think it’s great people have got another choice of transportation around the city and I think it’s great a hell of a lot of people are riding them and riding them responsibly,” he told Breakfast.
Both the Government and Auckland Council are reviewing regulations for the popular new form of transport. (Source: Other)
“But you can’t ignore the safety factors, I think 14 claims on ACC in the first week of the operation of these scooters,” Mr Goff said.
“For example, just looking at the bottom of Nelson St on Thursday, racing down the hill at 25 and 30km/h, no helmet.”
Central government and the two cities where the service had been launched needed to sit down and work out a framework for safety measures, Mr Goff said.
“We don’t want to be killjoys on it, I’ve seen people having a lot of fun on it and that’s good.”
“We’ve got this new technology. but we’re not really prepared for what sort of environment we place around it to maximise the safety of all involved, the riders and other pedestrians.”
Lime ‘launcher’ Cameron Swanson was a willing participant in any safety discussions, saying the company had been working on safety measures including a scooter workshop.
“We’re working on rolling out a scooter workshop where we’ll be inviting local residents to come and join us and talk about how to safely ride these scooters,” Mr Swanson said.
“I’d like to pull everyone together so we can have a roundtable discussion to figure out what works best for New Zealand and of course both local communities.”
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