E-scooter program proving popular
By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on July 12, 2022.
Since launching its e-scooter and e-bike concept back in April, Neuron has seen an outstanding response in the city this far.
“The community continues to embrace the service. Trips around downtown, north bus terminals, West Lethbridge Towne Centre and local parks continue to be popular routes for riders, including Henderson Park, Galt Gardens and Nicholas Sheran Park along with the Southern Alberta Art Gallery,” said Gwen McGuire, head of communications for Neuron.
The pilot project has seen thousands of new users, rides and kilometres traveled and so much so that the riding area has been expanded to the northern parts of the city.
“As of the end of June, Lethbridge riders had travelled over 175,000 kilometres in the city,” said McGuire.
Local Neuron riders use the service to do anything from exploring the city and commuting to work to visiting a local business.
We’ve seen in every city where we operate that our service makes a meaningful and positive impact on the environment and local businesses, and we are seeing this unfold in Lethbridge, “she said.
Neuron’s products run on the world’s first swappable e-scooter and are a 100 per cent carbon-neutral electrically charged batteries that are easily charged on the street without having to go to a charging station.
There are permits for 500 e-scooters and 100 e-bikes in the city.
Neuron announced in May they want to become carbon negative by 2025.
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Neuron wants to become carbon negative. Problem is, despite they’re claims, they’re not even zero-emissions yet. OK, their scooters and bikes don’t emit greenhouse gases but unless they’re being recharged from renewable sources or nuclear then they’re most likely being charged by burning fossil fuels. So they’re not even carbon neutral or zero emissions yet despite their misleading claim.
What is Neuron’s plan for becoming carbon negative? How do they plan on capturing more carbon than charging their vehicles produces?
Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels will be a slow, difficult, expensive process. We have a long way to go before the job is done. Making false claims about the current state of Neuron’s e-tech doesn’t facilitate the process. Such claims only make it easier for climate change deniers to attack and impede the process.
E-vehicles are a step in the right direction because rather than burning fossil fuels in billions of small, inefficient, possibly out-of-tune engines they allow burning fossil fuels in much more efficient power generating stations, the cleanest stations being those fired by natural gas.
It is all spin! Nothing manufactured is 100% carbon neutral. Add to that someone has to drive around to change out spent batteries (maybe they do that on a scooter). I doubt the vast majority of users rent these to avoid a car trip. Lets paint them orange and attach a helmet. That makes an inherently unsafe vehicle slightly less unsafe.