Newcastle City Council will soon decide how to proceed with plans for an e-scooter trial across the City. The Council’s aim is to reduce the number of car journeys, tackling both road congestion and air quality.

E-scooters will provide a new, convenient, green and socially-distanced alternative way for Newcastle’s residents and visitors to travel. According to Uswitch, out of the UK’s 40 most populous cities, Newcastle tops the charts as one of the most ‘e-scootable’ locations due to 13km of planned cycle lanes.

As one of the leading micromobility companies and a unit of Ford Mobility, Spin is a trusted and reliable partner, operating public hire e-scooters in many cities and universities worldwide - bringing people, communities, and their urban environment closer together.

In our first UK trial in Milton Keynes, we’re already seeing clear evidence of the shift from cars to e-scooters, which aligns with the Newcastle’s mode shift, sustainability and cleaner air priorities.

Since August, we’ve enabled more than 18,000 journeys on our e-scooters with research conducted among 500 of our Milton Keynes riders finding that 63% have replaced a single passenger car trip with an e-scooter ride. 38% said their most recent e-scooter trip replaced a drive-alone, carshare, or Uber/taxi, and 30% said they rode a scooter to connect to transit.

This remarkable rapid rate of adoption and transport mode shift, which could soon be a reality for Newcastle.

The Northern Echo:

Key to delivering a genuinely sustainable and safe e-scooter hire programme is a community-centred, consultative approach with local councils to create a tailored system for each city.

At Spin, we take rider safety very seriously. As well as providing new riders with a comprehensive set of rules and instructions before they can take their first ride on the Spin App, we also offer all riders access to Spin Safe Digital and will host physical Spin Safe events when we can safely do so.

Additionally, we implement geofencing technology. Using GPS, we can limit a scooter’s ability based on a certain area or restrict its speed. We also enforce no-riding geofences and no parking zones that are clearly visible in the app.

We’re excited at the prospect of potentially providing communities across Newcastle with a sustainable and shared e-scooter service that fully integrates into local transport ecosystems and gives residents a fun, green way to travel.