E-scooter pilot program hits the streets
By Lethbridge Herald on April 8, 2022.
Herald photo by Ry Clarke
Mayor Blaine Hyggen tries out an e-scooter during Neuron Mobility’s offical launch Friday downtown.Ry Clarke – for the Lethbridge Herald
Neuron Mobility rolled out its fleet of e-scooters and e-bikes in Lethbridge Friday, part of a pilot program approved by Lethbridge City Council back in May.
The first phase of the program will offer e-mobility devices across West and South Lethbridge, covering 47 kilometres. Riders will pay $1.15 for single-use-trips with a charge of $0.35 per minute. Or for more frequent riders, Neuron 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. Neuron’s app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play and riders must be at least 18 years old to ride.
The City of Lethbridge hopes the micro-mobility service will offer new modes of transportation for residents, while providing environmentally-friendlier alternatives. The partnership with Neuron will determine a competitive process for micro-mobility services in Lethbridge, as well as helping measure success with travel.
Lethbridge will be the fifth city in Canada to partner with Neuron, joining Ottawa, Vernon, Red Deer, and Calgary in its partnership. In Red Deer, 52 per cent of riders used the service to commute to work, with 38 per cent using Neuron to replace frequent car trips.
Emily Chong, marketing and communications manager at Downtown Lethbridge BRZ, says this will be a great way to explore downtown.
“As summer begins to bloom in Lethbridge and events and patios come back to downtown, e-scooters and e-bikes will offer our residents and visitors a fun way to see their community. E-scooters and e-bikes bring innovation and modern tech to our beautiful historic downtown, a combination that will surely inspire new wonders.”
Neuron is a safety-leading company, putting riders well-being first. E-mobility devices offer ‘Geofacing Control’ and the first ever app controlled ‘Helmet Lock’, encouraging safety with bonuses like $0.50 cents off your next ride when you upload a selfie wearing a helmet.
Neuron worked with the city to research where the largest impact would be to place the e-mobile devices around the city, monitoring continually to know where the devices should be distributed.
Ankush Karwal, regional manager for Neuron Mobility in Canada, says the company works with the community at events such as this, offering safety tips and rider awareness with school safety events planned for the future.
“There are multiple things that we worked with the city to identify; still riding zones, no riding zones, and no parking. The entire park is a no parking zone where you can’t end a ride, you can ride through it, but you won’t be able to end it. Similarly, there are areas where there’s a lot of footfall, so we’ll have a slow riding zone, so we don’t want people zipping through at 20 kph.”
Security features built into the devices will also prevent street clutter and theft of the devices.
“All of these have GPS tracking. So, we know that if it’s not on a ride, and if it’s being moved around by our guys, that somebody else put it in the truck and is taking it. There have been instances in other cities where you constantly find somebody trying to take this apart. But it’s very easy for us to track for that person as well as us.”
Karwal says the company also takes cybersecurity seriously, making sure information and privacy are protected keeping users’ data safe.
Neuron e-scooters and e-bikes are easily recognizable by their distinct orange and can be found throughout the city of Lethbridge for the next two years. Neuron will work with the community in engagement events focusing on safety and rider knowledge, along with incentives like helmet safety.
“We have a really good community stakeholder outreach program, and we look forward to a really good program over the next two years. I’d like to stay in the city of Lethbridge for this partnership. And we look forward to a really good program over the next couple of years,” said Karwal.
17-16
As I was driving by the BMO bank parking lot around 10pm on Friday night I had to stop and watch the show of 5 people on these scooters racing, mimicing ‘drift’ turns while spinning the tire and shooting gravel across the lot, jumping over curbs and even wiping out as they put the scooters through their paces. It was quite the show, instead of seeing the addicts, doing all the nasty things they do, but I wonder, how long are these scooters going to last with this type of behaviour and how many lawsuits will be launched by people being injured, both riders and non-riders? What insure cover them?
I step out of store several years ago and had to jump back into store entrance when woman that appeared to be at least 350 LBS was flying down the sidewalk going at least 20 kph. I can’t imagine the injuries I would have sustained.
I see these privately owned scooters going down the driving lanes of the road, one who was in the middle of the road and must of taken off the governor, because he appeared to be going at least 50 kph. Another I saw downtown in the middle of road going about 35 kph, swerving back and forth as if on a slolam course. How many will be hit with people backing up from their parking spot downtown? Sure, they say you can’t drive on the road but come on, we are living in a period where people do what they want, no matter the consequences or the impact to others!
Not sure how successful this will be in this city once the novelty wears off.