By Cara Waters
Police are cracking down on the misuse of electric scooters as increasing numbers take to the streets as part of Melbourne’s one year e-scooter trial.
In a blitz on the scooters over the weekend, Victoria Police recorded 38 offences which were mainly e-scooter riders running red lights and not wearing helmets.
Assistant commissioner for road policing, Glenn Weir, said police were hopeful scooter riders would do the right thing.
“We want people to engage with the trial and do it properly, do it sensibly,” he said. “You will be breath tested, you can’t be over the limit the same as a motor vehicle, as part of the trial, you can’t have a passenger, you must wear a helmet.”
Mr Weir said police wanted e-scooter users to self-regulate, but they would also enforce the law.
“If people think they’re going to come in and hire a scooter and get on the gas and try and get away from the police well, we will absolutely do our best to safely enforce those rules,” he said.
A commuter rides a Lime escooter without a helmet in the CBD. Credit: Eddie Jim
The use of e-scooters has been restricted in Paris after a fatal accident involving a pedestrian in June 2021 and Mr Weir said he wanted to avoid any crashes or trauma in Melbourne.
The public e-scooter trial involves 1500 e-scooters from companies Lime and Neuron which can be hired for a fee of 45 cents a minute.
The e-scooters’ speed is restricted to 20 km/h, and they can be ridden on bike lanes, shared paths and low-speed roads. Footpaths are off limits.
Over 60,000 trips have been made on the scooters since the trial started just over a week ago and data from Neuron shows the average e-scooter journey is 2.5 kilometres. The St Kilda beach bay trail is proving to be one of the most popular places for people to start and end their ride.
Data from Lime showing where e-scooter journeys are taking place in Melbourne.
Southbank, the NGV and the top of Collins Street are also proving to be popular start and end locations, with many riders travelling around the CBD.
Neuron’s Australian head Richard Hannah said special measures had been put in place to guard against scooters being dumped in the Yarra River like previous e-bike schemes.
“There is a total no parking zone around the river,” he said. “We have this set up in other cities and it is working well. Thankfully we have found that the overwhelming majority of riders are responsible and respectful, and our e-scooters are not ending up in local lakes, rivers and oceans.”
Lime’s director of government relations and public affairs Will Peters said the demand the company was seeing in Melbourne was comparable to Berlin and Paris, and it did not have enough scooters for all the people who wanted to use them.
Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said the Victoria Police had undertaken a blitz on e-scooters over the weekend. Credit: Eddie Jim
“It’s really disappointing to see a very small minority affecting the majority,” he said. “We make the rules very clear and we have the ability to fine and ban riders who do not comply.”
An increasing number of privately owned scooters are also appearing on Melbourne’s streets.
Mr Weir said he was particularly concerned about the use of private scooters off private land as it was illegal to use them on a public road, cycle lane or footpath if they are over 200 watts or can travel at more than 10 kilometres an hour.
“The ones that are used in the trial are governed to a certain speed, they are geo-fixed so that they can’t go outside the areas where they’re meant to be, and there’s a helmet – so there are significant safety parameters put on these scooters that have been used in the trial,” he said. “Which is why the privately owned ones that are unregulated are really unsafe.”
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