Brisbane’s Lime scooter trial

Two members of Griffith University’s Cities Research Institute have written up an excellent article on Brisbane’s trial of Lime electric share scooters.

The authors are Matthew Burke, Associate Professor, and Benjamin Kaufman, PhD scholar, and the article is entitled Limes not lemons: lessons from Australia’s first e-scooter trial.

The trial began amidst controversy over the speed and legality of the Lime scooter, but that has been overcome, indeed the trial has been extended until the end of February. At the time of writing, Lime reports there has been around 300,000 rides taken since the commencement of the Brisbane trial.

Overall Burke and Kaufman’s article paints a positive picture of the trial, they they do point out one or two pain points in behaviours, safety, and the need to provide better information on where the scooters can be legally ridden. The two researchers have also put forward five regulatory recommendations should the scooter become a permanent part of any Australian city’s transport mix.

I highly recommend interested parties read the article, as it appears this mode of transport will have an increasing profile on the Australian smart mobility scene, and could be an important and enjoyable cog in micromobility and Mobility as a Service in Australia.

For a closer look at the scooters, and how the system works, here’s a short introductory video from Lime: