E-scooter ‘death’ threat: Safety fears over call to let riders hit footpaths
Community groups are calling on the NSW Government to ignore recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry committee to legalise e-scooters and let riders use them on footpaths.
NSW
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The Minns government should ignore key recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry into e-bikes, e-scooters and other electric transport to save “lives and limbs” — and protect the vulnerable — community stakeholders say.
The report from an upper house inquiry chaired by Greens MP Cate Faehrmann proposed allowing e-scooters to travel on footpaths and reach speeds of up to 15km/h.
Privately-owned e-scooters, currently banned in NSW trials, are also recommended to be legalised and regulated.
But several submissions to the inquiry called for a footpath ban on the electric devices, with Vision Australia, the Pedestrian Council of Australia (PCA), the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Blind Citizens Australia among those to voice concerns.
In a Vision Australia nationwide survey of the blind and low-vision community, 40 per cent of respondents said they “left their houses to walk on footpaths less often now that e-scooters are proliferating”. Almost 90 per cent said that they “felt less safe when walking” due to the increasing use of e-scooters and 62 per cent “had been involved in an accident or near-miss with an e-scooter”.
NRMA also wrote a submission to the inquiry, stating: “The unsafe operation of e-scooters and e-bikes in urban areas has significantly heightened the risks to pedestrian safety … These vehicles, capable of silent operation and considerable speed, frequently surprise pedestrians, resulting in collisions and near-misses.”
PCA chief executive Harold Scruby said he feared serious injuries and even deaths would result if the green light was given for e-scooters to travel on footpaths.
Mr Scruby predicted if the inquiry recommendations were accepted “we would have several deaths in the first year and for serious injuries you can multiply that by 20”.
“Take a look at Queensland, where they allow e-scooters on footpaths – it’s a basket case,” he said.
“If people care about road safety they cannot be blinded by this idea that this is somehow going to save the planet and get people out of cars.
“What’s more important is the lives and limbs of the NSW people.”
Approved trials in dedicated areas of Sydney and regional NSW only permit the use of share hire e-scooters and prohibits their use on footpaths.
“Now, out of nowhere, this committee says we should allow private e-scooters as well as share hires, let them travel on footpaths at excessive speeds of 15kmh and leave pedestrians to dodge them all,” Mr Scruby said.
“There have been expert committees in the past recommending against e-scooters on footpaths and they’ve just chucked all that in the bin. This is bizarre. It’s beyond nonsense, it’s anarchy.”
The government will respond to the report by May 15.
A Transport for NSW spokesman said: “We will carefully consider the recommendations of the Inquiry and respond to the Committee’s recommendations in due course.”
The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) reported on its website late last year that eight people were killed on personal mobility devices in Queensland in 2024.
To 30 September 2024, there had been “1050 presentations to participating Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit emergency departments in Queensland as a result of an e-scooter ride gone wrong … for the same nine-month period last year, there were 940 presentations”.
A Transport for NSW E-microbility Action Plan, updated last October, included police not hospital data.
It said there were 124 e-scooter police reported crashes in NSW from 2020-2023, resulting in three fatalities and 116 injuries, including 40 serious injuries.
There was one e-scooter related fatality recorded in 2024.
According to Milad Haghani, a professor in Urban Resilience & Mobility at Melbourne University, the statistics highlight a desperate need for consolidated accident and injury data.
“Australia lacks a structured mechanism for systematically reporting, recording, and monitoring … ultimately, we know very little about many key aspects of e-mobility, despite its rapid growth,” he told this masthead.
“Right now, policy decisions are often shaped by who speaks the loudest.”
The parliamentary inquiry report details policy settings for a number of European countries.
Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Sweden prohibit e-scooters on footpaths while Italy and France allow them only under certain conditions along with a speed limit of 6kmh.
Australian states and territories have been more liberal.
Only Victoria and NSW, during its current trial period, prohibit riding on footpaths. Speed limits on footpaths vary from 10kmh in Western Australia, to 12kmh in Queensland and 15kmh in ACT, Northern Territory and Tasmania.
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