Brisbane e-mobility strategy released as council award tenders to Neuron, Beam

Hundreds of shared e-bikes will be rolled out alongside thousands of e-scooters across Brisbane as the council releases its new strategy to improve safety.

E-scooters could be locked out of precincts like Fortitude Valley during peak crash times, speed limits will be reduced in high pedestrian areas, and operators must disclose crash data, under Brisbane’s e-mobility strategy released today.

The clamp down on safety comes as Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced a new fleet of 800 e-bikes and 2000 e-scooters would be rolled out across Brisbane from July 22.

Beam and Neuron were each awarded a licence with a cap of 1000 e-scooters and 400 e-bikes.

Lime, the first operator to offer e-scooters in Brisbane, was not awarded an ongoing contract.

Mr Schrinner said the companies were awarded the contracts following a competitive tender process around non-price factors including safety, but would not reveal why Lime was not selected.

“Every single person who jumps on an e-scooter or e-bike is one less car on our road, so this initiative is busting congestion and building a more sustainable Brisbane,” Cr Schrinner said.

Jayden Bryant from Neuron mobility and Tom Cooper, Beam mobility in Brisbane on new electric bikes. Picture: Josh Woning

Under Brisbane’s E-mobility Strategy 2021-2023 operators must have third-party insurance.

Public and Active Transport Chair Ryan Murphy said the strategy details actions that will ensure e-mobility devices can operate safely and effectively.

“The strategy includes key actions such as speed limits in pedestrian areas, late-night e-scooter lockouts, safety initiatives, e-mobility parking areas and better consideration for charging facilities,” Cr Murphy said.

New data from the Jamieson Trauma Institute identified that late at night and weekends were hot spots for hospital presentations for injuries that involved e-scooters and e-bikes.

Between November 2018 and May 2020, there were 801 presentations across three Brisbane hospitals related to electric personal assistive mobility devices.

Labor councillor Jared Cassidy today slammed the e-mobility strategy, saying it did not go far enough to address public safety and would lead to “chaos on our footpaths” without further regulation.

“The LNP have admitted they still don’t have the infrastructure to ensure that our footpaths don’t become dumping grounds for scooters and e-bikes while not in use and yet we will have thousands of these scooters and bikes on our streets soon,” he said.

Cr Cassidy and Greens councillor Jonathan Sri both said Brisbane City Council should fine operators when an e-scooter is parked on a footpath or parked dangerously.

Cr Jarred Cassidy said further regulation was required to address public safety. Picture: News Corp/Attila Csaszar

However, Cr Murphy argued it was unfair to issue fines before there was adequate parking infrastructure available.

“My view is that once we have rolled out the start of an e-mobility hub scheme within the CBD – as part of the decommissioning of CityCycle stations – then there will be no excuse for operators or users to park outside of those zones, except if they are a certain distance from those parking zones,” Cr Murphy said.

Safety was highlighted as the primary concern from over 900 submissions during three months of community consultation last year.

The majority of respondents (84 per cent) were generally in favour of the draft e-mobility strategy, while 12 per cent were completely against it.

Wollongong local Belinda Sobin, 29, said the Neuron scooters were a great way to explore Brisbane.

“We saw a couple of people riding around of them and thought, oh they look like fun,” she said.

“We were worried that they were going to go really fast, but there was a high speed and a low speed, so we were on the low speed.”

Renee Kelly and Belinda Sobin both from New South Wales on the Riverwalk New Farm, on Monday. Picture: Steve Pohlner