Auckland Council reveals e-scooter curfew areas

One of Flamingo's pink e-scooters. Photo / Supplied

Auckland Council has revealed which areas will be under an e-scooter curfew and confirmed 15km low-speed zones for its new six-month licence period, which began on Tuesday.

And despite noting unresolved safety issues around riding on footpaths and wearing helmets (which only central government can resolve amid ACC's e-scooter tab topping $4.3m), the council also confirmed it has ramped up the total number of ride-share scooters allowed from 1875 to 3200.

However, with incumbent Lime booted out, survivor Flamingo having few scooters on streets and newcomers Beam, Nuron and Jump by Uber waiting on new shipments, there is a temporary shortage of scooters on the city's streets.

The council says several entertainment areas will have curfews, which means operators have agreed to deactivate their scooters in these areas between the agreed times of 9pm and 5am on Friday and Saturday. The areas are: Downtown, Wynyard Quarter, Viaduct, Skycity, Karangahape Road, Ponsonby, Parnell and Mission Bay.

All e-scooters must be deactivated between 11pm and 5am (a measure unlikely to be as noticeable, given e-scooters are typically off streets during the night anyway as they are retrieved by contractors for recharging).

Additionally, a raft of main street, shopping and waterfront areas will be subject to a 15km speed restriction (see list end of article), automatically enforced by GPS geofencing.

The post-9pm curfew areas. Source / Auckland Council

Some 3125 e-scooters have been allocated so far from a total 3200. Singapore-based Nuron and Beam are set to be the two largest operators at 880 each. Earlier, Beam said it would have its full complement on Auckland streets by the end of January.

Flamingo said it was ordering new e-scooters to take up its increased allocation. But they are also weeks away.

Tier 1 = the CBD and inner city suburbs, Tier 2 middle suburbs and Tier 3 outer suburbs. Source / Auckland Council

Under the terms of the new six-month licence, all e-scooters will have to feature a unique identifier, such as the "licence plate" number on each Flamingo today - an innovation the small Wellington startup introduced to Auckland, even as it was being mocked by Lime (the two 22-year-olds behind Flamingo are profiled here).

And despite the shortage of dedicated cycle lanes and other infrastructure that could get scooters off footpaths, the operators are again only being charged nominal fees, ranging from $16,995 to $18,370.

The low-speed zones

Takapuna
Devonport
Ponsonby Rd
Jervois Rd (College Hill to Curran St)
Karangahape Rd
CBD including Queen St, Fanshawe St, waterfront area and Westhaven Marina
Auckland City Hospital precinct
Parnell (including the Blind and Low Vision NZ precinct)
Newmarket
Mission Bay
Kohimarama
St Heliers
New Lynn
Onehunga
And "other areas across the city."