Purple rental e-scooters could expand further into Northland after Whangārei go-ahead

Whangārei's hire e-scooters at Town Basin. Photo / Tania Whyte

Purple rental e-scooters could soon be seen in other parts of Northland as the Whangārei District Council (WDC) okays their permanent presence in the city.

The district council gave the green light for public hire rideshare Beam Mobility scooters' permanent presence in Whangārei on Thursday, after a successful six-month trial. The business will not be paying the council a fee to operate.

Beam Mobility e-scooter expansion manager Frederick Conquer said the company was looking to potentially expand the e-scooter hire business to other parts of Northland outside Whangārei.

The council's e-scooter trial approval came in spite of opposition from the Northland Disability Action Group, which did not want them to become permanent in Whangārei.

Jeff Devine, Northland Transportation Alliance strategy and planning manager, said the group's e-scooter concerns were being taken on board.

Group representatives would be invited to assist with additions to the e-scooters' code of practice.

The group's main concern was e-scooters blocking mobility access because of users' poor parking on footpaths and suchlike.

Two hundred purple Beam Mobility e-scooters in December arrived on Whangārei streets.

Conquer said since then the e-scooters had done 50,000 trips - the equivalent of riding the length of New Zealand 50 times.

There had been 13,000 users with 37,000 kilometres of motor vehicle kilometres saved.

Carbon emissions from a Beam e-scooter were 20 times lower than a car, Conquer said.

He said the scooters' use had saved the production of 1.05 tonnes of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Conquer said the company would now look into expanding the number of e-scooters around Whangārei.

It would look to potentially set up its Whangārei warehouse as a Northland hub servicing the wider region, subject to councils' interest.

The purple e-scooters' permanent presence comes with strengthened communication between the WDC and the company.

Devine said the council systems had slipped up during the trial when community complaints about e-scooter use such as them blocking paths through poor parking had not been passed on to Beam Mobility.

"Our council system fell over unfortunately," Devine said.

Designated Beam Mobility e-scooter parking areas will be introduced with the arrival of the alternative transport's permanent presence in Whangārei.

Cr Nick Connop said an online informal community survey with 1100 responses he had just completed showed 77 per cent or 901 of the responders in favour of their continuation.

The Beam e-scooters' Whangārei range will remain roughly the same. However, the transport option's range out to Onerahi will be expanded.

The e-scooters' speeds in the central Town Basin will be reduced to effectively zero in the wake of the trial, as the number of people in the area increases following the opening of the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery.

The travelling speeds will be newly reduced between the Town Basin's canopy bridge and Claphams National Clock Museum as the purple hire e-scooters become a permanent Whangārei fixture.

Speeds around the rest of the Hātea Loop - Huarahi o te Whai shared pathway walking track will remain much the same, with localised lowered speeds in spots of high use.

The effective zero Town Basin speeds will be in addition to the same that is already in place for a portion of pedestrianised Cameron Street Mall.

Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai acknowledged the trial had experienced "the good, the bad and the ugly".

However, she said the e-scooters had a critical role to play in driving transport change.

"The most important thing is the mode shift," Mai said, with WDC encouraging people to get out of their cars and use alternative forms of transport.

She said there was an increasing amount of shared pathways around the city, which would be added to once Raumanga was completed.

Mai praised the inclusion of the city's disability action group who were being consulted in code of practice updates.

Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai gave the purple e-scooters a go when they were first introduced to the city. Photo / Michael Cunningham

She said it was great to see the new business had created 12 new jobs and paid the living wage.

WDC councillors voted 11:2 in favour of the e-scooter business becoming a permanent Whangārei fixture.

The mayor, Deputy Mayor Greg Innes as well as Crs Gavin Benney, Connop, Ken Couper, Tricia Cutforth, Shelley Deeming, Jayne Golightly, Phil Halse, Anna Murphy and Carol Peters voted in favour of doing so.

Crs Vince Cocurullo and Simon Reid voted against doing so. Cr Greg Martin was not at the meeting.

Cocurullo said he was not in favour of the hire e-scooters becoming permanent because of their impact on the disabled and elderly trying to also use footpaths.

■ Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.