E-scooter trials on coast and river await LGA green light

E-scooter trials await LGA guidelines before hitting coast and river footpaths.

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E-scooters could soon be zooming along not only the Coast Park shared-use path but also up and down the River Torrens Linear Park path.

West Torrens Council has been working closely with coastal and other councils, including the City of Adelaide, on the logistics and feasibility of expanding e-scooter trials beyond the CBD.

But the rubber will not hit the road until the LGA has finalised its draft guidelines for use of e-scooters and shared bike schemes across the state.

The LGA recently approached councils for feedback by June 5 on its draft discussion paper on the issue in a bid to develop consistent policy and permit procedures for all councils.

At their fortnightly meeting this week, West Torrens councillors seemed supportive of e-scooters, following the LIME e-scooter trial earlier this year in the city.

“Both path routes would seem attractive to e-scooter users from a tourism perspective,” a report to council said.

“If in the event that only these paths were chosen by City of West Torrens for a trial, this would require ‘geo-fencing’ of these defined areas only so that e-scooters are not taken beyond the authorised boundaries into other parts of the council.”

RIDE CEO Tom Cooper’s company is one of the two new e-scooter providers, the other being BEAM, currently operating in Adelaide’s CBD. Picture Dean Martin.

The report also said the scooters were low cost, convenient and could help ease parking congestion and assessed ride times, finding an e-scooter rider travelling the 6km between Glenelg and Henley Square would take 30 minutes if travelling at the speed limit of 15km/h.

BEAM e-scooters in an Adelaide parking bay. Picture: Supplied.

Among the statistics highlighted in the report from the City of Adelaide’s LIME e-scooter trial earlier this year are:

THE average distance travelled per ride within the CBD trial area was 1.25km.

MORE than 50,000 trips were undertaken by over 20,000 users during the first three weeks of the trial.

A TOTAL of 11 incidents were reported to the CoA, including three injuries from falling off an e-scooter, one rider crashing into a parked vehicles and one collision between a pedestrian and an e-scooter.

The LGA is expected to finalise its e-scooter and share bike policy and procedures template in coming weeks.