Editorial: Sour taste of Lime

A line-up of Lime scooters.

Lime.
Love it in a margarita.

Not fond of it on a scooter.

And it's not because I'm green with envy at cities that allow them.
It's because I think they are rude.

Here's how it works - download an app, sign your life away (literally, keep reading), find an available Lime scooter and off you go.

Finished? Leave it lying around, another user will hopefully pick it up, or someone might drive by, grab it and take it home to charge it on behalf of the company.

The scooters exist in pathway purgatory - should they be on the road or footpath?
Footpaths are for foots.

No problem with the occasional skateboarder. Or mobility scooters.

But Lime scooters whizzing along or lying on footpaths are rude. What other business operates with a "discard' policy that also becomes an imposition on the public.

Skateboard and mobility scooter users don't abandon their "vehicles" and leave them lying around for people to trip over.

Neither does a mobility scooter have to absolve the supplier of their scooter of any blame if they come to harm using it.

Hire a Lime Scooter and you essentially agree you or your family will not hold Lime liable if you come to any harm, or die, while using one.

Risky, given that occasionally, the scooters pitch their riders forward like a rodeo bull that has dug its heels in.

Lime has been linked to three deaths in the US.

Since the scooters were introduced in Auckland last October there have been a raft of accidents and injuries from both riders and pedestrians.

One man broke his jaw, a woman fractured her neck and lost a tooth.

Last month, Auckland Council suspended Lime's licence to operate after reports of injuries from the front wheel locking up unexpectedly.

The squeeze should be put on Lime - no other business would be allowed to operate a hire business using potentially dangerous products that can be discarded randomly on our streets.

And yet somehow cities around the world have loopholes that allow Lime to become flavour of the month with commuters prepared to take the risk.

Auckland city suspended Lime's licence due to safety concerns, but has now been convinced they are safe.

Here's hoping that along with exorbitant real estate prices, it's one trend that doesn't reach the regions.