“We’re learning, cities are learning,” Lime chief’s executive told Euronews as he addressed critics who claim electric scooters are endangering pedestrians and littering pavements across Europe.
ADVERTISEMENTThe California-based start-up, which was founded in 2017, has a presence in 40 cities across the continent.
To their supporters, the scooters are a fast and convenient way to get around.
But detractors say they are left strewn untidily on the roadside and can provide perils for people on pavements.
“I think the electric scooter micro-mobility industry is relatively new,” Lime CEO Brad Bao told Euronews at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
“We’re learning and the cities are learning.
“Our goal is to make the electric scooter service safer than the bike and that’s what we’re working on, including improving the hardware itself and educating the users and the public on the benefits of scooters.”
Paris has been one of the flashpoints for the firm. The French capital banned electric scooters from pavements, with offenders facing a €135 fine. A speed limit of 20 kilometres-an-hour was imposed.
Read more: France introduces new regulations on electric scooters
Bao said the firm had worked with Paris authorities to try and address issues around parking of the scooters.
He also sought to counter concerns about their environmental impact: more than a hundred were recently pulled from the river in Lyon.
Bao said electric scooters took polluting cars off the road and that a high percentage of them were recycled.