Melbourne Micromobility to be Australia’s Most Successful!
Lime Scooters return to Australia with Lime and Neuron winning Melbourne trial contracts!
By Stephen Coulter & Krystyna Weston, Founders Zipidi Micromobility & Convenors of the Asia Pacific Micromobility Alliance
Melbourne has announced that Lime and Neuron are the winners of the scooter trials in the cities of Melbourne, Port Phillip and Yarra. Lime already operate eBikes in these cities and will be adding their latest Gen 4 scooters from February. Neuron has recently commenced an eScooter trial in regional Victoria with the City of Ballarat.
We believe Melbourne will prove to be the perfect eScooter (& eBike) city for shared mobility operators. The city is flat, has many sporting and local venues and a vibrant inner-city area and surrounds.
The operating area is extensive covering almost 100 square kilometres encompassing every major sporting venue, transit hub and entertainment district within 5 km of Melbourne.
It also covers the Melbourne Bay trail from Port Melbourne to Elwood. The area also encompasses the Capital City Trail, a 30 km loop around Melbourne's inner suburbs and along the Yarra River. Melbourne has many bike paths in this area, check out the Melbourne Bike Grid Map to see them all.
Lime and Neuron have announced they will be deploying 750 eScooters each to the area in February. Lime already operates around 750 eBikes in the area and has an existing base of local app users.
There won't have been as much Lime and Orange around Melbourne since the Streets Splice ice creams of my childhood!
The numbers look very cautious and we hope the contracts allow for demand-based fleet sizes. Given the size of the area, the ideal conditions, and the propensity for Melbournians to get out and have fun, we think a combined fleet of around 6,000 is likely required for optimal liquidity for riders and operators.
We expect the trial to be very successful and expect adjacent councils will be extending the operating area after this trial is evaluated — hopefully, early results will give the Victorian Government confidence to extend the operating area from Q4 2022. We know other LGAs are keen to benefit from the local activity and spending that eScooters and eBikes bring.
The next piece of Victoria’s leap to future mobility is to approve the use of privately owned electric scooters and personal mobility devices. With more than 100,000 already being ridden in Victoria, the horse has already bolted. The Government needs to approve these urgently for the safety of riders and other citizens as this will ensure education, enforcement and vehicle standards can be communicated for safety.
Scoot on Victoria — a fun future has just got closer!
