Lime Auckland ban lifted: Green light as e-scooters allowed back on city’s streets
Friday, 1 March 2019
Lime has been given the green light for its e-scooters to return to Auckland streets.
Auckland Council announced it had lifted Lime's operating licence suspension at a media briefing at 1pm on Friday.
Auckland and Dunedin councils suspended Lime's operating licence last Friday because of a software glitch in their e-scooter fleet that caused sudden and unexpected braking mid-ride.
The council's chief operating officer Dean Kimpton said e-scooters were expected back on Auckland streets on Saturday.
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The lifting of the ban was contingent on Lime agreeing to the conditions it had already verbally agreed to, he said.
The decision would be finalised later on Friday with written approval.
It's likely the scooters will be available from early Saturday morning.
Conditions included Lime notifying the council and Auckland Transport 'at most' 24 hours after any significant instances with injuries involving its e-scooters.
Lime was also required to inform council and AT of any safety issues in other markets, such as other parts of New Zealand and offshore.
The e-scooters must also be mechanically inspected every week, he said.
Dunedin City Council staff had also met with Lime on Friday afternoon and had verbally agreed to having similar conditions apply in Dunedin.
'Once we have written confirmation that they agree to these conditions, Lime scooters will be back on Dunedin streets,' the council's general manager of community services, Simon Pickford, said.
He was critical of how Lime had handled the fallout of the glitch.
'I've spoken directly with Lime regarding our disappointment that these safety issues came to our attention through the media and expressed our concern that it was not good enough,' Kimpton said.
He said he expected Lime to inform council and AT of any issues.
'We don't know what we don't know.'
Lime's figures showed the glitch caused 155 'irregular braking incidents' across the country, resulting in 30 injuries – 19 of which were in Auckland. Several Auckland riders reported broken bones and smashed faces over summer.
Since the suspension, 1000 Lime-S electric scooters have been gathering dust in Lime's Auckland depots.
The California-based company said on Saturday it had fixed the bug that caused the glitch, and the machines had been 'triple checked' for safety.
Mitchell Price, Lime's director of government affairs and strategy, said the malfunction only affected less than a fraction of a per cent of all Lime trips in New Zealand – just 0.0086 per cent.
'But we also know that each trip is not really a number - it's a rider and a member of the community – so any case is one too many.'
ACC said it had paid out $643,000 for more than 1300 e-scooter-related injury claims since October to mid-February.
Auckland Council initially placed a series of conditions that Lime must meet for its e-scooter operating suspension to be lifted.
These conditions included co-operating with an independent consultant charged with looking into the glitch and working closely with council as it prepared its own report.
Lime agreed to the set conditions and spokeswoman Lauren Mentjox said the council had been given extra information requested.
On Thursday, Kimpton said council had received all the information it needed from Lime.
LIME PAINTS NZ GREEN
Lime burst onto the New Zealand scene in October, with fleets of e-scooters dropped in Auckland and Christchurch.
ACC received 38 claims for electric scooter-related injuries in the first two weeks.
The Californian startup then released fleets in Wellington in December and Dunedin in January.
Since then, the company has been tightening its grip on the NZ micro-mobility market.
It's Christchurch faction was granted a 12-month permit on Thursday, as well as permission increase fleet size from 700 to 1000 scooters.
Lime's Auckland trial has recently been extended until the end of March.
The Government was looking at law changes that would impose a 10kmh speed limit for the e-scooters.
Micro-mobility companies Onzo and Wave were also fighting for a piece of New Zealand sidewalk for their electric vehicles.
Kimpton said council were in correspondence with other companies that intended to bring e-scooters to Auckland in the coming weeks.