Mackay Expansion for Beam as Survey Shows Size of Shift From Cars

Mackay, Queensland

Beam has further expanded its operations in Australia, launching a share service in Queensland city Mackay last week.

The company will roll out up to 300 e-scooters for use in Central Mackay, North Mackay, East Mackay, West Mackay, South Mackay and parts of Ooralea, Mt Pleasant and Mackay Harbour.

Mackay Regional Council Mayor Greg Williamson said: “With the Mackay Festival of Arts just around the corner, we think event experiences like this will be enhanced with e-scooters and will continue to promote Mackay as vibrant, fun event destination.”

Beam Survey

A recent survey of Beam share scooter riders in Australia has helped quantify the number of share service patrons moving away from car use because they have access to scooters – and the prevalence of people considering switching to a car-free lifestyle as a consequence.

The survey revealed that while 80% of Beam patrons own a car, 32% use them less often, and 22% of those riders are “likely to”, “more likely to” or “definitely going to” sell their car in the near future as a result.

Those figures rise to 75% and 29% respectively for car owners who use Beam scooters regularly – at least once a week.

For patrons who don’t own a car, 52% say they are now “less likely to”, “much less likely to” or “definitely not going to” buy one now due to their access to shared e-scooters (68% for regular riders).

Beam, which operates scooter share services in almost every State capital in Australia and numerous regional cities, says the survey results show the “potential of micromobility to reduce congestion and emissions”.

“It’s amazing to see our riders making big shifts in the way they get around and this is the first time since launching operations in Australia where riders have revealed their trust in shared micromobility enough to go car-free altogether,” Beam’s general manager for Australia & New Zealand, Tom Cooper, said.

The Australian perspective compared similarly to an international survey by rival scooter share company Neuron Mobility, which found more than 45% of journeys taken on Neuron’s vehicles last year directly replaced a car trip. That amounted to three million car journeys avoided in 2021 and an impressive 844 tonnes of carbon emissions saved.