Take a load off: One of Beam's new seated e-scooters for Auckland.
An e-scooter can be a great way to zoom from your bus stop to office.
But what if you’re too lazy to even stand?
A plastic crate has been the popular “life-hack” to turn a regular scooter into a seated model.
But now there’s an official version. Rideshare operator Beam has launched 300 seated e-scooters in Auckland.
Beam says the seated models cost the same as its regular scooters (that is, $1 to unlock then 59c per minute; with $19.99 three-day and $24.99 per week ride pass options).
And that they sport the same safety features as Beam’s ‘L-shaped’ standing e-scooters, including triple brakes, phone holders, a Bluetooth helmet lock and dual front suspension, Beam says.
And while they’re Instagrammable for the idle, Beam says they also have serious users, providing an option for those who have accessibility issues with a regular e-scooter or pedalling an e-bike. They’re also pitched as encouraging longer journeys by e-scooter, helping to reduce emissions from cars.
“Auckland has experienced great success with shared micromobility, which has become a preferred means of transportation for residents and visitors, and seen over three million kilometres ridden on Beams across Auckland to date,” said Beam’s Auckland operations manager Matias Roque.
“However, they have not been accessible to all members of the local community which is a gap we are looking to address with the launch of seated e-scooters across the city.
“Our data from the introduction of seated e-scooters in cities across Australia shows a 30 per cent increase in average trip distances on a seated e-scooter.
“This shows they open up the ability to ride across longer distances, with a more comfortable seated position encouraging an increased modal shift away from cars.”
In a new round of two-year licences issued in October 2022, Auckland Council culled the number of operators down to two - Uber-backed Lime and Singapore-owned Beam - who can each operate up to 1200 e-scooters.
A spokeswoman for Lime said, “We have already launched our Gen4 seated scooter in cities across the globe, and will be launching in NZ soon.”
Around a month ago, e-scooter operators faced an existential threat.
Back in 2018, shortly before Lime launched in New Zealand, Waka Kotahi gazetted that e-scooters were not motor vehicles under the Land Transport Act 1998. But it was a temporary exemption that would time out on September 30 this year.
After that, e-scooter riders would require a licence. But with no mechanism to grant individuals a licence, e-scooters would have been effectively barred from everywhere but private property.
In the event, Waka Kotahi rolled over the exemption for another five years.
It helped that an initial backlash had cooled.
E-scooters got a rash of bad headlines in the years after their introduction after a series of accidents and poor reporting saw Auckland Council pull Lime e-scooters from Auckland streets in February 2019 (they were returned a fortnight later).
But in more recent times, GPS-enforced speed limits, restrictions on where an e-scooter can be abandoned (without a ride remaining live on your credit card), reduced e-scooter numbers under council licenses, AI safety measures and more cycle lanes have taken some of the heat out of the debate.
It also turned out that despite various grisly stories and many a broken bone, the e-scooter accident problem was never as bad as originally thought.
ACC admitted in January that it has over-stated e-scooter claims by some $5 million due to mopeds and mobility scooters being mistakenly included in earlier figures.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
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