Ginger will join Lime and Spin in providing shared electric scooters in Milton Keynes as part of the town’s forthcoming trial. As many as 450 scooters in total could be made available at launch.
San Francisco-headquartered Lime already has a presence in Milton Keynes, running a shared e-bike programme; its participation in the e-scooter trial was revealed in a news report. Ford-owned Spin hails from the same US city and had confirmed its involvement in Milton Keynes through its own blog.
The third player, Ginger, was confirmed to Zag today by a Milton Keynes Council spokesperson. The young company with black-and-orange scooters got its start last month when Middlesbrough, the first place in the UK to roll out an e-scooter trial, chose to partner with the British firm.
“All operators will phase introduction of scooters, each limited to around 100-150 in first month or so and expand as necessary,” a council spokesperson told Zag. This means that the Milton Keynes project could field up to 450 scooters when it launches, compared with the 50 that Middlesbrough started with.
The e-scooters will be permitted to ride on the town’s redways, a network of some 200 miles of shared-use paths for cycling and walking; using geo-fencing, riders will be restricted from roads with speed limits in excess of 30mph.
The scooters are expected to be hitting streets in August, following DfT approvals and signing of final contracts between the local authority and micromobility companies.
