After a few months of taking guesses as to when they will arrive, e-scooters are officially in Queenstown — or at least, parts of it.
Yesterday, purple Beam scooters appeared at several spots around the CBD, the Gorge Rd industrial area, and Kawarau Village, at Kelvin Heights.
It was the start of up to 300 being rolled out across "partner businesses", which hosted the e-scooters’ virtual docking parks.
These included Night ‘n Day Camp Street, FreshChoice, Four Seasons Motel and DoubleTree by Hilton, among others.
There was a noticeable gap in Frankton businesses and nothing in Fernhill.
It is understood all major hoteliers in Queenstown were approached by Beam Mobility for partnership — but with the exception of DoubleTree, none were on board.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council agreed to enter a memorandum of understanding with Beam in December for a two-year trial, effectively to test Queenstown’s network and see if e-scooters would be a viable micromobility transport option.
Beam e-scooters line up for their first day of duty outside Night ‘n Day Camp St store yesterday. PHOTO: MELISSA READY
Despite councillors requesting the e-scooters’ operating hours be extended past 10pm, to provide a transport option for CBD night workers to potentially get home, Beam set the operating hours between 6am-10pm.
Fernhill, most of the top residential streets on Queenstown Hill and the peninsula past Kawarau Falls were all "no-go zones".
Beam’s website stated riders "should keep out of these zones", and they were not able to end their trips there — e-scooters would automatically power-off within 0.5 seconds of entering one.
Beam Australia and New Zealand general manager Tom Cooper said he understood community concerns about micromobility in Queenstown, and the adjustment the public had to make with the introduction of a new mode of transport.
"It is important that the community understands the advanced technology behind shared e-scooters that differs from the personal e-scooters they may have seen, or even shared bike schemes from years ago."
There were plenty of proven safety features and protocols in place to both deter bad behaviour, and investigate those who did not abide by Beam’s rules, he said.
These included the Beam Safe Academy education programme, and restrictions such as "slow zones" where speeds of e-scooters would automatically reduce.
melissa.ready@odt.co.nz
