The company providing e-scooters across Liverpool has not ruled out expanding across the wider Merseyside region.
Commuters in the city have been able to access distinctive Voi electronic vehicles since a trial was launched in October 2020. Liverpool was one of 32 areas throughout the UK to take part in the rental trial scheme, commissioned by the Department for Transport.
Now, the Swedish micromobility firm is looking to further its reach across the Liverpool City Region.
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Sam Pooke, Voi senior policy manager for the UK and Ireland, told the city region combined authority’s transport committee it would be “very interested” in delivering e-scooters to other councils in future should they be interested. The company’s contract with Liverpool Council runs until May next year.
Mr Pooke said: “We’re coming up to our three year anniversary in Liverpool, it’s been a great success so far, but we still think there is more we can achieve.” This included adding the firm’s own parking racks having adopted areas from the council following the closure of its CityBike scheme that Voi replaced.
A local authority cabinet report last year said the size of the CityBike scheme reduced year on year, due to theft and vandalism, coupled with a lack of available funding to invest in new bikes. As a result, the scheme became what the council described as “unsustainable” due to annual losses of around £300k each year.
The CityBike scheme began in 2014 with £2M of funding from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF). There were 1,000 bicycles and 150 docking stations installed as part of the programme, before 50 docking stations were cut.
Vandalism and theft led to the number of bikes falling to 500.
The director added: “We currently cover around 80% of the city council boundary, we don’t cover roughly beyond (Liverpool) South Parkway but we don’t cover Speke retail (park), we don’t cover the airport, that’s something we hope to change over time and cover that final element of the city council boundary and then in future, if any other neighbouring councils within the combined authority scheme were to look for adopting e-scooters that’s something we’d be very interested in as well so that we can really provide good commuting possibilities and travel possibilities across the city region.”
Mr Pooke said talks were underway with officials from Liverpool Council regarding the introduction of a pass to make using an e-scooter more appealing for commuters when using public transport through combined ticketing for “30 minute or 60 minute bursts” but admitted it was not a “silver bullet” to reduce car dependency.
On expansion, he added: “In time we’re making sure the final part of the city is covered as well, because otherwise there are people in the south of the city who might want to use e-scooters who would have to walk 15-20 minutes to walk into the operating zone or similarly, if they’re commuting home, they’ve got to stop 20 minutes from their house.
“Covering off that final part of the city in future I think would have a big difference.”
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