Canberrans will soon have a new way to get around our city with two organisations chosen to introduce the e-scooter shared scheme. The scheme will also create more jobs for Canberrans in the management and maintenance of the e-scooters.
“I would like to congratulate e-scooter providers Beam Mobility and Neuron Mobility for successfully securing permits to help Canberra join other cities around the world in introducing an e-scooter share scheme,” Minister for Roads and Active Travel, Chris Steel, said.
“We anticipate this new form of travel will be popular with Canberrans but also tourists exploring the Capital. The areas where the e-scooters will be located are being determined in collaboration with the successful operators but will likely include the city, inner north, inner south and at least one other region.”
“The ACT Government will now work with the two successful operators to finalise the operational arrangements to ensure the scheme is rolled out to be safe, convenient and accessible,” Minister Steel said.
Last month, the ACT Government released a dockless shared micromobility policy and guidelines which set out the Government’s expectations for the operation of a high-quality e-scooter scheme in the ACT. The policy established a competitive expression of interest process to allow for two operators to be selected to operate up to 750 devices each.
Beam Mobility and Neuron Mobility were selected following this highly competitive process.
Beam Mobility is the largest micromobility company in the Asia-Pacific with operations in Auckland, Christchurch, Bunbury, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei.
Neuron is the leading e-scooter operator in Australia and New Zealand. Founded in Singapore in 2016, the company operates in eight locations including Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide and Auckland.
Both companies demonstrated their commitment to delivering a high-quality scheme for the ACT and were best able to demonstrate they could meet requirements in the policy.
Beam Mobility and Neuron Mobility are delighted to be Canberra’s e-scooter providers.
Zachary Wang, CEO of Neuron Mobility said, “After a highly-competitive process, we are delighted to have been selected by the ACT Government to provide e-scooters to the city.
“We look forward to partnering with Transport Canberra and City Services to deliver the city’s first e-scooter programme. E-scooters are a great way for people to travel in a safe, convenient and socially-distanced way, and elsewhere in Australia they are helping cities bounce back from the pandemic.”
Khoa Pham, General Manager, Australia and New Zealand of Beam Mobility said, “Beam is excited and grateful for the opportunity to partner with the ACT Government to bring efficient, affordable and environmentally friendly transportation to the people of Canberra.”
“Beam will be introducing to Canberra our safest and most advanced e-scooter, the Saturn+, and implementing our virtual docking technology to keep city streets accessible for all.”
It is anticipated that e-scooters will be available to hire in Spring 2020.
An education campaign on how to use the service will also be developed at a later date with the two providers to assist users and non-users of e-scooters.
