E-scooter rental scheme extended
The contract runs for another two-and-a-half years
Last updated 18th Jan 2024
E-scooters will be staying on the roads of Southampton for the next two-and-a-half years after the city council’s cabinet agreed to extend the scheme.
After the Department for Transport (DfT) extended the national trial scheme, it meant any local authorities wishing to follow suit had to extend their own local schemes to match.
Councillor Eamonn Keogh, cabinet member for transport, said it ‘supports our local plan’, ‘demonstrates its value’ – and is an ‘easy and accessible’ way to get around the city.
It was recently revealed that since the scheme began in 2021, more than 1.5 million rides had been made on e-scooters, claiming to have saved 340 tonnes of CO2.
The city council will now either extend its contract with Voi, the e-scooter supplier, or begin a new contract with another provider, ensuring the environmentally friendly vehicles stay on the roads.
At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday (January 16), the council’s extension of the rental bike scheme was also extended. Rental bikes are supplied by Beryl – however, despite the extension, the usage is ‘below the required level’.
The council is now looking to find a ‘single operator’ for e-scooters and bikes to ‘achieve economies of scale’ to make the bike rental scheme more financially sustainable.