E-mobility company rolls out plans for April launch
By Ry Clarke - for the Lethbridge Herald on March 25, 2022.
Herald photo by Ry Clarke
Neuron Mobility's Ankush Karwal gives a demonstration of the company's e-scooters and e-bikes, with the rental service preparing to roll out in the city this spring.Neuron Mobility will be launching their e-scooter and e-bike service in Lethbridge, the first micro-mobility program in the city.
Lethbridge City Council voted back in May to pilot an electric mobility program, hoping to bring more alternative means of transportation to the city. The program looks to launch its service in April, with the company bring 250 e-scooters and 50 e-bikes to Lethbridge. Neuron was chosen for the pilot program because of its strong track record with partnering cities and the care they put into safety and innovation.
Regional manager for Neuron Mobility, Ankush Karwal, told The Herald Thursday the company looks after the safety of its riders.
“Once we launch in the city, we do school safe events, which is where our operational team will interact with the general public with the riders, showcase the safety features of our e-scooter and our e-bikes and also let them know where to ride, where not to ride.”
Lethbridge will be the fifth city to host Neuron Mobility, seeing success in Ottawa, Vernon, Red Deer, and Calgary. The service will look to promote alternatives to transportation while offering more opportunities for residents to explore the city in a new way. The program also hopes to ease public transportation volumes and help provide a solution to rising gas prices. In Calgary, e-mobility devices have helped expand the downtown core with riders using e-scooters and e-bikes to maneuver obstacles like parking and high-volume vehicle flow. Karwal also says the company will be looking to hire in Lethbridge helping create more job opportunities. “We’ll hire locally. We’re going to put (out) about 250 e-scooters and about 50 e-bikes, and we will hire somewhere between 25 to 40 people from Lethbridge itself. We’ll also be hiring an operations manager based out of Lethbridge. And we also have a city manager who will be part of this entire setup.”
Neuron puts the safety of its riders first with innovative partnerships like the Traffic Injury Research Foundation to promote e-mobility safety across Canada. E-mobility devices work with geofencing to control where they can be ridden and parked, along with controlling device speed to regulate speed limits. They also come fitted with the world’s first app-controlled helmet lock to prevent theft and promote safety, along with a voice guidance feature to help riders with tips for safety and education for first time riders.
“Everything that we do at Neuron is keeping safety in mind. Right from the orange safety colour, to the drop deck, and the larger wheels. We’re the only company in North America to have the helmet lock system. Everything that we do has technology in our mind, when a driver comes on board we go through a safety video to tell them what to do and what not to do,” said Karwal.
Launching in April, riders will need to be 18 years of age and will be able to book and use e-mobility devices through Neuron’s app, which can be download from the App Store or Google Play. Riders will be paying $1.15 for single-use-trips with a charge of $0.35 per minute. Or for more frequent riders, it offers ‘Neuron Pass’ subscriptions for three different time-packages. Three-day passes are $25, a weekly pass is $33, and a monthly pass is $89.
Karwal says the company is hoping the two-year pilot with the city will make a great addition to Lethbridge, “We’re extremely excited to be here. It seems to be a really promising city and we should be launching somewhere in the beginning of April.”
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