Warning lights are flashing as ‘green-light scooter’ craze hits Potch
The mystery of all those little green lights quietly zipping around town recently was solved when it was confirmed that GoNow scooters were officially launched in Potchefstroom earlier this week.
These electric ‘skopfietsies’ (kick bikes) with their characteristic blue frames and green night-lights were already a familiar sight on the streets around campus as many students welcomed a new way to navigate the streets. But almost as quickly, motorists and other road users were complaining to threestreamsmedia and on social media that some of the GoNow scooters were being used recklessly and without regard for traffic laws. Several of them wanted to know: “Are they even legal?”
So, are they legal?
GoNow’s offering is a mini scooter with a platform that you stand on while riding. It has no gearbox, so you have to push-kick it to get going. It has brakes, but no brake lights or indicators, only a light at the front and a bright green light at the bottom to make them more visible at night.
Because they are not registered for road use, they also have no number plates, just GoNow’s own identification number. Each scooter has a small electric motor which directly drives the rear wheel. The speed is electronically capped at around 15km/h, and you rent it from by the minute through the GoNow app. Legally, they are somewhere between a bicycle and a motor-powered pedestrian.
The company was started in Stellenbosch in 2020 and have since grown their operation there to around 500 scooters. But with more scooters also came more safety concerns, and in May this year GoNow co-founder and CEO Jacob Levitan had to defend the company’s reputation by telling Carte Blanche that “to my knowledge, we haven’t heard of any serious injuries, anything more [than] a sprained ankle or a bloody knee.”
The following month, Stellenbosch Municipality issued a “notice of suspension” of GoNow’s operations, citing safety concerns. Stuart Grobbelaar, spokesperson for the municipality, told The Argus that the use of electric mini-scooters remains illegal on public roads and sidewalks and that legal advice was being sought on the way forward following the suspension notice: “As per national traffic and transport laws and regulations, e-scooters are not permitted on any public road or sidewalk.”
Following the launch in Potchefstroom this week, Levitan told threestreamsmedia that around 200 scooters were now in use here, making GoNow “the largest shareable electric micro-mobility company in the country”. He said GoNow is “currently involved in talks with the university’s legal department” to allow students to use the scooters on campus, although current regulations explicitly forbid this.
Levitan stressed that GoNow’s scooters are not toys and urged responsible use. “It’s not a leisure service, [or] a recreational service,” he said. “If people ride [our scooters] recklessly, it’s the kind of thing that gets a service banned altogether.”
How does it work?
Levitan told threestreamsmedia on Tuesday that GoNow was built on a simple idea: that a mini scooter could be used for the last stretch of any commute. “That 15-minute walk after the taxi or bus drops you off is the part that wears people down.”
If you want to use a GoNow scooter, you first download their app, find one of the bikes near you on the map, then unlock it by scanning a QR code or entering a code. Ride to your destination, park it in one of the marked zones, and you’re done. GoNow says a maintenance crew is out every day to swap flat batteries for new ones or do maintenance. If something goes wrong with your scooter, you can flag it in the app, and the company claims it will be collected within half an hour.
Several students approached by threestreamsmedia said they were excited about the new transport offering. First-time user Etienne Maree found the scooters “quite easy to use” and praised the app’s simplicity, adding that scooters “are a good way to travel around Potch” and “fun as well.”
If demand continues to grow, GoNow might add more scooters or electric bicycles to its Potchefstroom offering, Levitan said, while adding that the company has its own systems in place to ensure responsible use, including fines for offenders. A security company has also been appointed to patrol areas where the scooters are in use and to deal with any incidents. By Thato Bosiu, Ntombikayise Mahuma, Sibusiso Moledi, Angelique Rossouw, Delphinah Sibanyoni