The company behind the e-scooter trial in Nottingham is set to make changes to parts of the scheme, and one of the proposals is for the introduction of an 'unlock fee'.
That means riders would be charged a small fee in addition to paying for their journey as usual.
Superpedestrian, which runs the LINK e-scooters across the city, explains it's to make riding e-scooters more comparable to other transport services in Nottingham instead of replacing them, to cut down on the number of small car journeys made and so that it does not discourage walking journeys.
The company says e-scooters will still be among the most affordable out of all the schemes in operation in the UK.
It's not yet known if this will definitely go ahead, and the introduction of the fee is still being discussed.
Industry-standard schemes carry an 'unlock fee' of £1, $1 or €1, which is widely seen across the UK.
The average price of a 15 minute journey in Nottingham is currently £1.80, compared to £3.25 in Rochdale and Salford, £3.80 in Birmingham, Northampton and Kettering, and £4 in Liverpool.
Based on other schemes, if an 'unlock fee' was to be introduced, it is likely to still be cheaper than most areas to make the same journey for Nottingham riders.
As the scheme is still in a trial phase, if variations are found to not be working, they can be changed.
The trial phase runs until November this year after it was extended in October 2021 for another year.
Adam Escott, 25, has been newly appointed as a community engagement and marketing associate for Nottingham specifically, and part of his role will be speaking to communities in the city to listen to feedback.
Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, he said: "People can hop on anywhere and go on a ride they want to take, but that maybe affects people's riding habits where they might not even need to make the journey, and could do something active like walking.
"If it's so cheap, that could be encouraging that behaviour, whereas an 'unlock fee' could prompt people to make a more informed decision before they travel.
"The modal shift we're driving towards is to make sure the current systems in Nottingham can continue to work, and our main idea is replacing short car journeys rather than competing with award-winning systems such as the trams and buses.
"Competing with that doesn't make sense.
"It's still such a low cost system, given the price of fuel at the moment, and with it being a trial, we can work with pricing structures and think how it can work better for people."
Other proposals have been discussed too, including schemes to give more riders free rides, a loyalty programme and docks to encourage e-scooters to be parked more safely.
The docks will work in a similar way to bike racks, in that riders will be able to park them in designated bays.
10 of them, which have space for 5 e-scooters each, will come to the city next month, and Superpedestrian is liaising with Nottingham City Council on where best to put them.
Existing parking bays will also be repainted.
It's all to generate data for the Department for Transport to see if e-scooters will become a more permanent fixture across the UK.
Adam said: "It's really important we make sure our parking infrastructure is working as well as it can do, and we can add things to that.
"In my experience so far, the majority of people are parking well but it's not perfect, but we can put more money into this to make it better.
"Anything we will change, we will communicate with our riders and we'll make sure they're on board with what we're doing and why we're doing it."
Six staff to monitor street safety have also been hired by Superpedestrian, which has already invested millions of pounds into the scheme.
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