Hobart City Council officers recommend continuation of hire-and-ride e-scooter services

Not everyone is a fan of hire-and-ride e-scooters but Hobart City Council’s CEO has recommended that elected members vote to continue the service beyond the expiry of the current operator’s permit.

Hobart City Council officers have recommended that hire-and-ride e-scooter services continue in the city. Picture: Chris Kidd

Hobart City Council officers have recommended that e-scooter services be continued in the state capital and that the provision of hire-and-ride e-bikes also be considered.

At a council meeting on Monday, elected members will vote on whether to keep e-scooters as a fixture of the city’s active transport mix beyond the expiry of the current operator’s permit in May.

A report prepared by the council’s CEO, Michael Stretton, urged councillors to approve a public procurement process for the awarding of a new permit.

Hobart City Council officers have recommended that hire-and-ride e-scooter services continue in the city. Picture: Linda Higginson

This would include the consideration of hire-and-ride e-bikes being provided in addition to e-scooters, as well as further parking options and “control measures” to prevent “inappropriate parking of e-scooters (and potentially e-bikes)”.

“It is clear that the parking of e-scooters remains an issue for their continued use within the city. The council’s parking audit demonstrated that there are substantially more e-scooters being inappropriately parked than are being reported to Beam,” Mr Stretton said.

Should elected members vote to authorise the council to embark on the procurement process, updated permit conditions would be considered at a future council meeting before being released to the market.

“On balance, there are more cities throughout Australia that are continuing to provide e-scooter services, than ending the service,” Mr Stretton said.

A phone survey conducted by market research firm Ipsos between December 5 and 15 found that of the 400 Hobart residents surveyed, 57 per cent supported the continuation of e-scooter services in the city, while 22 per cent were opposed and 20 per cent were neutral.

Michael Stretton, City of Hobart CEO. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

A small number of residents (21 per cent) said they would prefer e-bikes to e-scooters and Mr Stretton said the potential addition of this active transport option was “something that could be considered in future”.

Three people required hospitalisation as a result of e-scooter incidents between May and December 2024, while Tasmania Police issued four infringement notices for e-scooter offences between December 2023 and December 2024.

Hobart City Council transport committee chair Ryan Posselt said parking continued to be an issue for any city that operated e-scooters.

“However, they do provide a very valid means of moving around the city for short trips, and they do contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of Hobart as a city, where 60 per cent of our emissions come from transport related emissions,” he said.

Micromobility companies Beam and Neuron began a trial of hire-and-ride e-scooters in Hobart in December 2021, with Beam ultimately being awarded the exclusive permit for an ongoing service in April last year.

The existing permit will provide about $90,000 in revenue to the council in 2024-25.

An average of 13,056 e-scooter trips have been completed and a distance of 19,735km have been covered per month under Beam’s permit, servicing 3906 users and saving 3709kg of CO2 emissions.

Originally published as Hobart City Council officers recommend continuation of hire-and-ride e-scooter services