Update | 26 February 2019
Auckland Council and Auckland Transport have received information from Lime, and our teams are currently reviewing this.
Lime’s independent reviewer, Exponent, has indicated its review is continuing and that it will provide further information to that already delivered, by the end of the day on Wednesday. The licence suspension will continue until we have this information and have completed our review.
Representatives from the Lime e-scooter company today (Friday 22 February) came in to meet with senior Auckland Council and Auckland Transport staff to address safety concerns. This follows a number of recent incidents, some of which have resulted in injuries, caused by the wheels on e-scooters unexpectedly locking.
Dean Kimpton, Auckland Council Chief Operating Officer, says Lime has advised that it has identified 155 reported irregular braking incidents that may have been caused by the unexpected locking issue. 92 of these were in Auckland. Of these, 30 resulted in injury, of which 19 were in Auckland.
"Following this explanation, myself and Auckland Transport Chief Executive Shane Ellison have given careful consideration to the most appropriate next steps.
"We have reviewed Lime’s licence and decided to temporarily suspend the e-scooter trial with Lime, subject to further information being provided and conditions being met.
"We have been clear with Lime representatives that the equipment used on our transport network must be safe for use.
"The safety of people using e-scooters and those that share the environment with them is our number one priority. While we appreciate the amenity that e-scooters offer as an innovative transport solution, safety is not negotiable," says Mr Kimpton.
Lime has been requested to:
- provide incident frequency over the period of the trial, as it relates to this unexpected locking issue. This will also highlight the effect of the recent firmware upgrade.
- provide a full update on progress against the licence extension conditions.
- agree to report to council and Auckland Transport on a 48-hour frequency all incidents and meet weekly with relevant staff to discuss the incident record, analysis and Limes response / actions
- agree to international root-cause specialist consultancy Exponent providing a letter to both our organisations that provides us assurance of the root cause analysis methodology undertaken in this instance, the findings, recommendation and their observation as to success.
- accept that the council will appoint an independent reviewer as part of our assurance of your safety management and processes, they will have full access to its operations and data for this purpose, this is an additional cost to be added to the licence.
- accept that the council will appoint a reviewer (as above or another) to assess the detailed and confidential analysis of the Exponent root cause analysis, findings and recommendations.
Letter to Lime - 22 February 2019
Lime has agreed to these conditions and, once we are in receipt of this information, we will make a further decision on whether Lime’s licence suspension will be lifted.
Lime has this afternoon been notified of this decision and we expect them to begin managing the removal of their scooters as soon as practicable.
People wanting to provide feedback can email the council on escooterprogramme@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz. Feedback will be included in the review process.
