Neuron Mobility e-scooters (Vernon Matters file photo)

By Liam Verster

E-Scooters

Neuron e-scooters to remain in Vernon for 2024, new vendor may provide service in future

Nov 29, 2023 | 1:00 PM

The City of Vernon is ensuring e-scooters and e-bikes remain available for residents and visitors to rent, although the service provider may change in the future.

At their meeting Monday, Nov. 27, Vernon city council received the yearly report from Neuron Mobility on their operations, which showed interest and ridership remained high, and having the service was resulting in a positive impact on the local economy.

The e-scooter season is expected to wrap up in the coming weeks, marking the end of a three-year provincial pilot program that started in Vernon in July of 2021.

Later in the meeting, council was presented with an opportunity to maintain the service by directing administration to develop and implement a new application process for shared e-scooter vendors to operate in Vernon, should the province extend the pilot or make the e-scooter regulations permanent.

Mayor Victor Cumming put forward that motion with additions: extending the contract with Neuron through to the end of 2024, and have staff open tenders to other e-scooter service providers for 2025.

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Cumming said extending the contract with Neuron would not break up the service and result in residents losing interest, while the city looks at other possible providers.

Councillor Akbal Mund noted Neuron does not provide the City of Vernon with any compensation for hosting their products, but was aware of others that do, and expressed concern that the city would move away from the company that had served Vernon for the past three years in the hopes of some monetary benefit with a risk of poorer service.

“I’d hate to go back to step one, and I hope this gets considered by administration, that Neuron has done a pretty good job of listening to us here. I don’t think anybody on council disagrees with that, and I’d hate to bring in a new vendor just because they out-bid the existing vendor just to get their foot in the door,” Mund said.

“That would mean three years of lost improvements and safety,” he added.

Anne Huisken, Vernon’s active transportation coordinator, responded to Mund’s point by saying, going to tender was within the city’s procurement policy, and that they “want the opportunity to take some of the key considerations that we learned in the survey and put that into a new application process and bring that out to bids.”

Cumming added council could bring recommendations and “some weighted process that reflects responsiveness and capability, et cetera.”

The motion to extend Neuron’s contract for 2024, and then have staff open tenders for other e-scooter providers, also in 2024, passed unanimously.