Thrice around the world for Tauranga Lime users

Lime Day event organiser Hamish Gleeson buzzes around Mount Drury Reserve last week. Photo: John Borren.

Tauranga City Council has declared itself happy with the use of Lime scooters in the city.

The electric scooters first popped up on city streets in October. A previous roll out was scheduled for May 2020 but was postponed due to Covid-19.

The council approved a 12-month trial of the devices stating that ‘providing communities with more ways to move around the city is a priority'.

Lime also operates nationwide in Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Dunedin, the Selwyn District and the Hutt Valley.

With Tauranga City Council looking for an environmentally friendly way to get around town, Lime scooters were awarded the trial last year and have been met by impressive demand.

'Overall, we are happy with the uptake in ridership,” said Brendan Bisley, director of transport for Tauranga City Council.

'Since the trial started in October, more than 26,000 people have taken almost 80,000 rides, which shows there is a real demand for this type of transport choice.

'Users have clocked up more than 130,000km, which is more than three times the circumference of earth or about nine times around the entire coastline of New Zealand.”

The popularity of lime was self-evident last weekend as Lime Day 2021 at Mount Drury Reserve provided the opportunity for locals to be encouraged to give the scooters a chance, perhaps for the first time, in a bid to allay fears over safety and ease of use.

5 comments

lime

Posted on 30-01-2021 09:10 | By dumbkof2

are the people that run these things paying any fees. Acc registration wof etc. as i understand it any motorised transport operating for hire or reward on a public road are required to pay them


Toys

Posted on 30-01-2021 10:06 | By Slim Shady

They are just toys for frivolous journeys. Not a means of transport for essential journeys. Have Council declared they are happy to subsidise empty buses that clog up the road and destroy the roads? Does Council even need a Director of Transport? So many layers of highly paid management coming up with schemes to justify their job.


Scooters

Posted on 30-01-2021 10:57 | By peanuts9

In this community, the Lime scooters and users are better behaved and less trouble than those using mobility scooters.


R18

Posted on 30-01-2021 12:13 | By Yadick

Age needs enforcing and helmets should be compulsory otherwise they're great and most people/users appear to be being courteous.


Easy riding

Posted on 30-01-2021 22:02 | By Informed

Not sure why people are throwing shade. I’ve used them to get from work to the hospital a number of times. If I wasn’t on the scooter, then I would have been in an Uber. So that’s less cars on the road, less emissions and cheaper for me.


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