After a few months of to-and-fro and taking guesses as to when they’ll 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 Road industrial area, and Kawarau Village, at Kelvin Heights.
It’s the start of up to 300 being rolled out across ‘‘partner businesses’’, which host the e-scooters’ virtual docking parks.
These include Night ‘n Day Camp Street, FreshChoice, Four Seasons Motel, and DoubleTree by Hilton, among others, with a noticeable gap in Frankton businesses and nothing in Fernhill.
Mountain Scene understands all major hoteliers in Queenstown were approached by Beam Mobility for partnership — with the exception of DoubleTree, none were on board.
Queenstown’s 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 could be a viable micromobility transport option.
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’s set the operating hours between 6am and 10pm.
And, at present, Fernhill, most of the top residential streets on Queenstown Hill and the peninsula past Kawarau Falls are all ‘‘no-go zones’’.
Beam’s website states riders ‘‘should keep out of these zones’’, and they won’t be able to end their trips there — e-scooters will automatically power-off within 0.5 seconds of entering one.
Beam Australia and New Zealand general manager Tom Cooper says he understands community concerns about micromobility in Queenstown, and the adjustment the public has 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.’’
He reassures Queenstowners there are plenty of proven safety features and protocols in place to both deter bad behaviour, and investigate those who don’t abide by Beam’s rules.
These include the Beam Safe Academy education programme, and restrictions like ‘‘slow zones’’, where speeds of e-scooters will automatically reduce.
