State government rules e-scooters will remain permanently in Melbourne

Despite rampant misuse and serious injuries, the state government has decided Melbourne’s e-scooter trial will become a permanent fixture on the city’s streets.

E-scooters will remain on Melbourne streets. Picture: Supplied

Victoria’s trouble-plagued e-scooter share hire scheme will become permanent, with “hefty” new fines to be slapped on riders breaking the rules.

Despite rampant misuse and serious injuries, the state government will allow share hire e-scooters to operate across Victoria permanently from October.

Tougher new penalties – including increased fines for riding on the footpath, not wearing a helmet and riding while intoxicated – will be introduced.

New technology will also be rolled out which will detect footpath riding, disable e-scooters without attached helmets and verify riders wearing a helmet, while PSOs will be given greater powers to enforce the e-scooter road rules.

There will be ‘hefty’ new fines for riders who flout the rules. Picture: Brendan Beckett

New legislation will be introduced to parliament next year, which will set out requirements for e-scooter share hire operators applying to councils to operate in their municipalities.

The main road rules – including that riders must wear a helmet, not ride on footpaths, be at least 16 years old and not drink and drive – will remain unchanged.

Under the changes, the fine for not wearing a helmet will increase from $247 to $395, footpath riding will increase from $198 to $296 and riding under the influence will increase from $247 to $395. 

Fines for speeding will also increase from $247 to $346, while riding with a passenger will increase from $198 to $247.

The scheme will become permanent from October. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Public and Active Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams, who made the announcement alongside Lord Mayor Nick Reece on Friday, said she was confident “significant new boots on the ground enforcing the rules” would deter people from breaking the law.

Mr Reece warned riders that the new fines were “hefty”.

“These are hefty new fines. $400 for not wearing a helmet, $300 for riding on the footpath, $250 for double dinking,” he said.

Earlier this month, Mr Reece said Town Hall was reviewing the scheme and a report was due before the council in coming months.

While acknowledging they were popular, he said he did not believe e-scooters were “working as they should”.

“I think we need to make the scooters work better, I think we need to see more orderliness to where they are located around the city and I think we need to see those safety concerns addressed,” he said.

More than 130 e-scooter users were slapped with hefty fines by Victoria Police for failing to wear their helmet during a 48-hour crackdown in late May.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece said e-scooters were not ‘working as they should’. Picture: David Caird

The e-scooter trial first launched in Ballarat in December 2021 and was later extended to the City of Melbourne, the City of Yarra and the City of Port Phillip in February 2022.

The state government flagged that the scheme would become permanent in April this year when it extended the for the third time to investigate additional “safety and compliance” measures.

“E-scooters are here to stay — they’ve proven popular among commuters, especially shift workers, providing an additional option to travel home safely,” Ms Williams said at the time.

“We have more work to do on safety and compliance to ensure that e-scooters are safe when they’re made permanent later this year.”

However, former Lord Mayor Sally Capp told the Herald Sun in May that further extending the trial had “delayed” critical safety improvements, including the rollout of technology to detect footpath riding.

She said the City of Melbourne was “stuck in a regime” until the trial finished, with operators not able to invest in the scheme long term to bolster these measures.

“Improved technology … to geofence pavements, which would mean that the machines stopped working on pavements, requires a significant investment by the operators and … it’s not commercially feasible to do that during a trial period,” she said at the time.

“From that perspective, it has delayed improvements to safety and I think the better operation of the shared scooter schemes.”

Last week, operator Neuron announced that Melbourne will be the first major city in the world to have an entire fleet of e-scooters decked out with front-facing AI-powered cameras.

The technology, which has been tested in Melbourne over the past six months, will now be rolled out to all 1250 e-scooters in the Neuron fleet.

The new rules will take effect from October this year.