I think e-scooters are great. I love riding them. They're easy. They're efficient. They're fun. 

And in high density, congested cities, they make so much sense. I was running late for a ferry a few weeks back and unusually I hadn’t ridden my bike. I had to hustle from K Road in Auckland down to the ferry terminal. And instead of literally running two kilometres with my bag, I quickly scanned in an e-Scooter and went straight down Queen Street. I made the ferry with minutes to spare. Enough time to get a coffee. Too easy.

In the capital, I’ve come this year to rely on e-Scooters as my main form of transport. There are heaps along the Wellington waterfont, and I just love it. Love the wind in my hair, the water on one side and the city on the other. It’s fantastic. And then you get to your destination,  park up, you whip out your phone, end the ride, and you’re sorted. I reckon this year, I’ve probably ridden e-scooters 20 times when otherwise I would have taken a car. That has to be a good thing. 

But if you think e-scooters are dangerous and cost our health system a lot of money, wait until you hear about cars! 

I know there are still plenty of e-Scooter detractors out there. You may feel that we were given very little warning about e-scooters and that effectively overnight our biggest cities had a whole fleet of zippy things scattered throughout them, terrorising pedestrians and littering footpaths everwhere. I’m not suggesting they’re perfect by any stretch. But if you think e-scooters are dangerous and cost our health system a lot of money, wait until you hear about cars! Do you really hate e-scooters? Or in a world where we’re crying out for efficient forms of transport, do you think, maybe, you just don’t like change?  

The news overnight of course is that Lime scooters are finished in Auckland. Well, finished may be a stretch, but for the next six months at least they won’t be in Auckland. They’ve missed out on a contract with the council, which in turn has awarded operating contracts to four different e-scooter companies. The council reckons the other companies have better safety features such as automatic braking downhill, and are less likely to end up littering the streets.

Lime scooters are kind of like Glad Wrap, in a sense. Because everyone’s come to associate the name of the brand with the broader product. Glad Wrap of course is just a brand of cling wrap, or cling film. Just as Lime is a brand of hireable e-scooter.

• Uber e-scooters recycled after six months as they reach 'end of life'
• E-scooter accident claim costs cross $4 million - ACC
• Dunedin mayoral candidates want e-scooter restrictions
• Lime e-scooter death: no faults found with scooter, councillor says

I’m sure that was Lime’s strategy.. the company wanted to be the big dog, the dominant player, when hireable e-scooters were launched in New Zealand. The problem is that the initial teething problems and grumbling and moaning about e-scooters generally all got directed towards Lime. And then when you add to in the quite legitimate problems for which the company was responsible... the braking glitch... and it makes for a lot of bad press.

I think 4 different scooter companies in one city is way too many.

Here’s my take on the future of e-scooters. I think the Auckland council’s safety expectations, and the curfew on hireable e-scooters use between 1am and 6am, when it’s dark, amd people are more likely to be drunk, are pretty reasonable. The time is right for council’s aorund the country to work out some national standards so the scooter companies are all clear about the expectations across the board.

I think 4 different scooter companies in one city is way too many. Four contracts have been issued in Auckland but there should  really be no more than two companies in any New Zealand city. We want to make this easy for consumers – four companies require four apps. That’s dumb.

Finally, e-scooters are here to stay. If you really don’t like them, don’t demand they be taken off our streets. Instead, demand our city planners, politicians and councillors design cities that properly enable safe e-scooting. Every morning when I ride my bike to work, I share the bike path with e-scooter users. But the bike path networks in our biggest cities aren’t that flash yet.  You want to reduce carbon emissions, reduce the number of e-scooter accidents, reduce congestion, and reduce the chance of being bowled over by an E-Scooter as you’re walking down the street? Simple: demand more bike paths.