E-scooters save over 10t of carbon emissions, Cortes tells Parliament

The Hoppy e-scooters have saved over 10 tonnes of carbon emissions, the Minister for Environment Dr John Cortes said in response to questions in Parliament about e-scooters being “abandoned” across Gibraltar.

Dr Cortes described how the e-scooters owned by a private company form part of Government’s wider sustainability strategy and had delivered measurable benefits and that fines are in place for those who abandon e-scooters.

According to data provided to the Government, the e-scooters had saved over 10 tonnes of carbon emissions enabling more than a hundred thousand kilometres of journey’s and has been used by over 12,000 unique local and visiting users.

“As part of this engagement Hoppy corresponds regularly with the ministry providing usage and performance data,” Dr Cortes said.

“Hoppy’s technology requires users to start and end journeys at designated locations, when scooters are not parked correctly the system identifies the breach and a financial penalty is applied to the user via the app.”

“While isolated instances of misuse occur, abandoned units are identified through the platform and retrieved by the operator in a timely manner with liaison maintained with the Royal Gibraltar Police as necessary.”

GSD MP Giovanni Origo asked whether the Government is happy that the financial penalties go far enough.

Dr Cortes said he is not happy that people abandon the scooters and that Hoppy collects the scooters daily, but that this is a matter for the private business.

“From my point of view clearly I’m not happy that on some occasions these scooters are left in places where they shouldn’t be and… I know of no occasion but if a scooter was left for a prolonged time certainly my team would take it up, report it and so on,” Dr Cortes said.

In his view, Hoppy does a “good job” and saves carbon emissions from the alternative, likely motorcycles and cars.