Charis Chrisna
TechInAfrica – During the past few months, Cape Town has been one of the cities to be unofficially renowned as the home of innovation and upcoming tech hubs. This port city on South Africa’s southwest coast now welcomes another solution for micro-mobility; electric scooters.
Mainly seen in highly developed urban areas, this low-cost means of transportation also bolsters ecologically friendly environment. By 2020, Lime—a transportation company based in the United States—will introduce their fleet of electric scooters to Cape Town. Both tourists and residents will be able to enjoy this feature without having to wear out their shoes (or to contribute towards the overall emission and global warming).
Typically, these kinds of vehicle-sharing services allow users to pick up and/or drop off bikes and scooters from specified spots in the city. Despite the usual trend, Lime will be taking an innovative approach to manifest this idea; the company will be distributing its fleet to privately-owned locations around Cape Town.
In a press release, Wayne Ting, Lime’s Global Head of Operations and Strategy asserted:
“Cape Town is helping lead the way forward on technology and innovation in Africa, and we’re excited to be a part of that story.”
Furthermore, Ting also added. “Our mission is to improve urban living through sustainable, affordable transportation, and we’re looking forward to extending meaningful mobility access and reduced carbon emissions to South Africans living in and traveling to Cape Town.”
In addition to being eco-friendly, micro-mobility solutions such as these are deemed affordable, possessing substantial potential to tackle issues in which conventional public transport could not.
With the addition of Cape Town to its global ridership community, Lime will now offer micro-mobility services on six continents worldwide. It’s also a possibility to see Lime introduce eco-friendly transport solutions such as their electric scooters to another cities in Africa.
Source: thesouthafrican.com
