Toowoomba Regional Council vote to pause trial of e-scooter hire following recommendation of infrastructure committee

After a council committee recommended against the trial of e-scooter hire in Toowoomba, citing incoming legislation and a lack of awareness on road rules, the issue went before a full council vote. Here’s how it went.

A trial of e-scooter hire in Toowoomba has been canned for now, with council deciding the time wasn’t right to go ahead with the proposal that would see a proliferation of the polarising mode of transport.

At Toowoomba Regional Council’s ordinary meeting on September 20 councillors voted to defer plans to move forward with the e-device trial, following a recommendation earlier in the month of the Infrastructure Committee to not proceed.

In a report presented to the committee the results of council’s public engagement on the issue revealed the community was “evenly divided”, with 1285 members of the community responding.

A QUT observational study of electric scooter riding in central Brisbane has found nearly half of shared e-scooters were being ridden illegally

“Overall responses indicated 46 per cent supported a trial, whilst 54 per cent did not support a trial, but of the overall responses 44 per cent of those responded were unaware of road rules regarding e-devices and indicated their answers may have been different if they were more aware of the State legislation,” the report stated.

“Of that targeted user demographic of under the age of 55 years, over 60 per cent of those respondents were supportive of a trial. Of those who were supportive of the trial, 53 per cent preferred the e-scooter while 39 per cent preferred the e-bike.”

Toowoomba Regional Council has put the brakes on a trial of e-scooter hire. Picture: iStock/bortnikau

TRC Infrastructure Committee portfolio leader Melissa Taylor said the timing wasn’t right for the trial, considering that state government legislation on e-scooters was due to take effect in November.

“There was also a large portion of people who said they were unaware of the road rules regarding E-Devices,” Ms Taylor said.

“We believe the timing is not right to undertake the trial yet, but believe it may be an idea worth pursuing into the future.

“These new laws would assist with mitigating some of the risks which were raised during our survey period and once residents have had time to familiarise themselves with the updated rules, we could potentially look at a trial in 2023/24.

“While we won’t be progressing plans in the immediate future, E-scooters and E-bikes are transport elements that have been identified in the current refresh of the Toowoomba Region Sustainable Transport Strategy.

“We want to see less cars on the road and will continue pursuing options to make this an active and healthy region.”