Although they are not such the new invention some people think, the first being called the Autoped and dated back over a century, the electric scooter has become both a modern-day marvel, and a futuristic nuisance.
The face of urban mobility has been changing in recent years, and “Personal Mobility Vehicles” have taken off, partly due to their compact size, designed to carry a single person, and their economic and environmental credentials that makes them a choice for many people with environmental concerns, whilst still being able to maintain mobility.
One thing that is most definitely new however is the appearance of these vehicles, often in large groups, on the streets and pavements where we live, in the form of rental scooters.
Two companies operating in this local area, Hopp and Hoppy, the former with Icelandic origins, the latter Belgian, are also confusing matters because they look identical, although they need separate apps to control and rent them, as they are different companies.
A quick scan through Facebook, and credit to the respective photographers for the pictures we have found, shows that there is indeed a problem with these vehicles being left in often illegal, and frequently inconvenient locations. Their parking is, incidentally, controlled through municipal ordinance, and the town halls can dictate the terms of their location and operation.
Most of the pictures we found re depicting Hoppy scooters, although, often, it is Hopp who get the blame. One such case occurred this week when The Leader was contacted because a Hoppy scooter had been left leaning against the gate of the home of an elderly, frail, lady, who uses a mobility scooter. The placement of this vehicle meaning she would have been unable to access or egress her property.
Based on these recent findings, The Leader contacted Hoppy via their head office in Belgium, and received a reply, in which they said, “We appreciate your involvement and duly take note of the feedback for our improvement. We have easy recognisable vehicle decals which may prompt concerned citizens to enter in our web and report misplaced LEV´s and be able to report the problem. But I believe it must have been difficult for the lady to act in this way and found it easier to reach out to you. We apologise for the inconvenience”.
They continue, “The misplaced LEV on the picture seems to be ´abandoned´ by a user outside an enforced parking zone while still riding. Hoppy strived to maintain an ordered service hence the use of enforced parking zones; These are geozones in the form of polygons on the map of our App where only there the users may end their ride. In the eventuality that any of our LEVs our local team of operators will relocate the displaced vehicle as soon as possible within the next 24h. In the case of being informed directly vía the contact details on our web, our local team would take about 1h during day working hours to solve the matter”.
The company offered no information as to how these zones were assigned, and with what permissions, so it could be that your front road is designated without you even knowing. Also, some users have reported problems with the parking zones in the app, stating that they were parked in an authorised zone, but the app would not recognise it as such, and continued to charge them.
Whereas Hoppy clearly blames the user in this case, it is clear that the problem highlighted is not isolated. Hoppy have provided an email address where you can report problems with their vehicles, but please make sure that they are Hoppy vehicles first, which is support@behoppy.eu
They conclude by saying, “we are a growing company which looks forward to improving our service and will soon add a phone number on our website to report this kind of issue. Hopefully this misbehaviour by users or other saboteurs will decline, we are constantly applying methods to reduce these actions”.
In the meantime, as well as reporting problems to the companies, if you would like to send your photographs of badly, illegally, or inconveniently parked (or “abandoned”) scooters, our friends at The Leader newspaper are keen to hear from you, and you can email them at office@theleader.info, and they will share the evidence so either the companies involved can be aware and fix the problems, or, if necessary, the town halls can take appropriate action. You should however also report the problems to the company for immediate action as they promise.
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