City of Zug, 28.05.2019

There will now be stationless E-scooters in Zug

From this weekend, the e-scooters (trottinetts) from Flash will be available for hire in the City of Zug. By September, there will be five different rental offers for bicycles and e-scooters - four of which have no fixed locations (stationless).

E-scooters are booming and are now coming to Zug, as the European mobility provider Flash writes in a communication. From the coming weekend (18 and 19 May), the first electronic scooters will be available in the city and the suburbs.

And this is how it works: using an app, the E-scooters can be located and unlocked and be relocked again at the end of the ride. The payment is also made via the app. An activation costs 1 franc, and every driving minute costs another 25 centimes. You can travel about 30 kilometres with a single battery charge - and then? Flash collects the "empty" scooters, re-charges them and places them back in selected locations.

The scooters from Flash function according to the so-called ‘Free-Floating’ principle: the vehicle can be parked anywhere in the public area after use, and waits there for the next user.

David Scherrer von Flash Schweiz didn’t want to say how many scooters would stand ready in Zug from this weekend. He simply said: “We continually adapt the number of available scooters to the current demand.” The City of Zug, on the other hand, does know how many. Andreas Meier from the responsible department states:

“There will be about 50 scooters at the start.”

Zug gives green light to rental businesses

The scooters from Flash are not the only offer in this area, however. By September 2019, Zug will have a wide selection of rental and free-floating systems:

Free-Floating

Stations-System

 

This is how the Verleih- und Free-Floating (rental and free-floating) offer in the city of Zug will look from September 2019. (Picture: z.V.g.)

The Zug CVP city councillor on an E-scooter from Flash (Photo: z.V.g.)

Clear licence conditions

As interesting as the variety of rental offers may be, not all cities have had positive experiences with them. In Zurich, for example, oBike's stationless bikes were often in unsuitable locations last year, and, when the Singapore company went bankrupt, the city was left with the bikes.

The city of Zug is pleased about this development in the field of mobility, replied CVP City Councillor Urs Raschle on request. As the head of the Department of Social, Environmental and Security, however, he is also aware of what they could be letting themselves in for:

“We know the story about Bike in Zurich and have respect for this development. That's why we took a lot of time to think about which offers make sense.”

There is also a cooperation with the Non-profit Society of the Canton of Zug (Gemeinnützigen Gesellschaft Kanton Zug)., who will provide people to support the city in this area. Raschle also places obligations on the providers. The communication from the City of Zug also states:

“All providers have a licence that states the appropriate conditions for orderly operation. For example, it requires that the vehicles are kept in a roadworthy and well-maintained condition, that a hotline is available and that the privacy policy is adhered to. Annual reports will show how the offers are actually being used.”

The City of Zug will remain in close contact with the providers. If everything does not run as desired, measures could be introduced: «We can impose fines, or, as a last resort, revoke the licences”, says Raschle.

Scooters belong in the bicycle lanes

In its communication, the Flash company, with head office in Berlin, writes that, in road traffic, its E-scooters are regarded as equivalent to bicycle, and adds:

“Accordingly, scooters must be ridden in the bicycle lane. If there is no bicycle lane, they must be ridden on the road. Flash recommends wearing a helmet when riding an e-scooter.”

Flash is growing within Switzerland, and has already brought E-scooters onto the market in Basel and Zurich.