-They are climate-friendly and agreat example of micromobility;
-Cruise ship passengers will be able to use them.
I'm struggling to see any of those things as justification for letting Singapore-based e-scooter company Beam come and take money off local tourism operators trying to get their lives and businesses back together after Covid.
NCC seems to be solving a problem it doesn't have, and in doing so, creating a fresh problem for locals. In a tourist town in 2022, the decision verges on inexplicable.
Napier already has e-scooters for hire - and e-bikes, ordinary bikes, taxis, buses, Uber, and Art Deco-style transport for cruise ship visitors and tourists.
There are already multiple ways to navigate Napier's beautiful, flat, compact CBD.
Craig Cooper: ''It's difficult to find any economic positives from Beam's arrival, because forget oily rags - this type of e-scooter business runs on the smell of a charging cord''. Photo / Paul Taylor
Paul Williams and his wife Sarah operate Napier Scooter Hire, on Marine Parade.
They only heard of the council's arrangement with the international e-scooter provider earlier this month, and understandably, they aren't impressed.
It's difficult to find any economic positives from Beam's arrival, because forget oily rags - this type of e-scooter business runs on the smell of a charging cord.
To hire an e-scooter, you simply pick one up from where the last person dumped it and hope the battery has some charge left.
Then you use an app to pay for it, and away you go. And when you are finished, you leave it where you like.
There might be a few jobs created - Beam will need people to collect dead scooters, retrieve them from water fountains and the Iron Pot and then recharge them, and set them loose on the streets again.
Beam is very proud of being a carbon-neutral company, so all is not lost: a local car dealer might benefit from selling them an electric van.
Riding an e-scooter also comes with some risk, something a set of guidelines will help absolve NCC from. Will it assist riders?
Let's be honest, most men don't read the safety guidelines.
Napier Scooter Hire proprietor Paul Williams is worried about the arrival in town of a new e-scooter hire firm in conjunction with the city council. Photo / Doug Laing
At some point, a mildly intoxicated middle-aged man will smear himself over Hastings St on the way home from his favourite craft beer bar.
If that sounds a little specific, I have some experience as a mildly intoxicated middle-aged man trying to ride an e-scooter.
The e-scooter wouldn't go – I concluded it had some sort of anti-alcohol device. I'd found it lying on its side in the Auckland Viaduct.
My friends concluded the battery was flat, and I hadn't downloaded the proper app, and therefore, I was also too stupid to ride one. It's hard to counter the argument.
That was in the evening.
Earlier in the day we had stepped over e-scooters dumped on the footpath, and marvelled at how the business had got permission to operate with no accountability for the return of its scooters or the hazard they presented to other CBD users.
Oh yes, micromobility. It's a buzzword that simply refers to people using small lightweight vehicles, often e-vehicles that generally aren't faster than 25km/h.
It's a great goal for communities.
It's important here to differentiate between owning an e-scooter - and in doing so, reducing your carbon footprint - and visitors hiring one.
If the population of Napier bought e-scooters locally and used them to scoot about as an alternative to using a car, like I do on my electric bike, then that would be a great thing.
Local businesses and the climate benefit.
Offering 200 e-scooters for hire, targeting the visitor industry in a relatively flat, compact, (albeit beautiful) CBD that is very easy to explore on foot - that's something different.
Napier MP Stuart Nash, who happens to be the country's tourism minister, last week announced applications were open for a $54 million innovation fund to support unique and transformative ideas that will improve our tourism sector.
I'm wondering if NCC will apply for a share of it.
* Craig Cooper is a former Hawke's Bay Today editor. He now writes a weekly column called 'Reverse Spin' - his take on life in the Bay.
