Milton Keynes Council and micromobility company Lime will launch a full-scale UK e-scooter trial at the beginning of August.
The 12-month trial is still subject to approval from the Department for Transport (DfT), but if approved an initial fleet of 250 e-scooters would be added for use in the town. This will run alongside Lime’s e-bike service that is currently running in Milton Keynes.
Cllr Peter Marland, leader of Milton Keynes Council, said: “At a time when residents are in need of safe, environmentally friendly and socially-distant means of transport, we’re thrilled to be the first UK city to provide this type of large e-scooter trial. This will provide an important new travel option to residents and visitors to Milton Keynes and we look forward to working with Lime to study the results from the trial.”
Lime was selected to run the first ‘on-street’ phase of Milton Keynes’ e-scooter service following a competitive process with more than 10 e-scooter providers vying to launch in the town. Lime has committed to providing a fleet of up to 500 of the company’s latest e-scooters for rental in Milton Keynes based on expected demand.
Florence Milner, general manager, UK & Ireland, Lime, said the company was delighted to have been selected as the first provider to bring e-scooters to the UK at scale. “We believe they will transform travel in Milton Keynes at a time when we’re in desperate need of alternatives to driving.
“We’re thrilled that Milton Keynes Council have continued to show faith in the high quality services we provide. It was a highly competitive selection process so we are very pleased to have been selected to continue serving the people of Milton Keynes, as we have already done successfully for over 18 months.”
According to Miller, the company is actively involved in other competitive processes to provide e-scooter services to other towns and cities in the UK and will announce further trials in other areas of the UK soon.
