A bike and scooter sharing service has reported adding 14,000 users to its ranks in the Norwich area this year.

The city is one of the country's trial areas for the for-hire scheme where motorised vehicles such as e-scooters are legal to rent and ride, with Beryl serving as the city's go-to operator with its 140 bays area-wide.

With a full or provisional driving license, users who sign up can hire a bike, electric bike or e-scooter on a pay-per-minute basis.

The operator surveyed 3,000 people in September who had signed up to use the service since January and published its findings on behaviours, motivations, impacts and barriers. 

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It found that overall Beryl had a "positive impact" on habits in the city with 44pc of riders cycling more often or much more often since joining Beryl and 35pc reducing their use of cars and 50pc reducing their use of taxis.

Norwich Evening News: More than 60pc of Beryl riders are using the service to replace bus and car journeysMore than 60pc of Beryl riders are using the service to replace bus and car journeys (Image: Beryl)

In 2023, 61pc of riders have used a Beryl vehicle to replace a car, van, motorcycle or taxi journey and there has been a 13pc rise in disabled users, up from 4pc in 2022. 

Beryl chief executive and co-founder, Phil Ellis, said: "One of the scheme's great strengths is its multimodality and we can see from the report that offering people three modes is having a really positive impact on rider behaviour, getting more people out of their cars and adopting more sustainable transport habits."

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Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council's cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "The beryl scheme in Norwich continues to be popular with more than 77,000 people using the scheme since it launched in March 2020.

Norwich Evening News: County councillor Graham PlantCounty councillor Graham Plant (Image: Norfolk County Council)

"In fact, almost 14,000 people tried the scheme this year for the first time to replace car journeys.

"This shows the scheme is making a real impact on air quality in the city and is a key part of us achieving our net-zero targets."