Northern mayors flag e-scooter republic in swerve to avoid Melbourne City’s ban

A new front in the war over e-scooters for hire has opened with an alliance of inner northern councils vowing to support the alternative transport mode in the face of a ban from the City of Melbourne.

The mayors of Merri-bek, Darebin and Moonee Valley signalled their support for a rental e-scooter scheme by rolling through suburban streets in their mayoral robes, with one urging Melbourne City Council to reverse the “short-sighted” ban.

Merri-bek Mayor Adam Pulford, Darebin Mayor Susanne Newton and Moonee Valley Mayor Pierce Tyson support e-scooters.Credit: Jason South

Merri-bek’s Adam Pulford and Darebin’s Susanne Newton, from the Greens, and Labor’s Moonee Valley Mayor Pierce Tyson have banded together declaring their intention to explore trialling a shared mobility zone to help curb road congestion, reduce pollution and provide their growing population with cheap and sustainable transport options.

“[There are] critical gaps in travelling east to west across our municipalities, and e-scooters and e-bikes could save people time by avoiding a long public transport trip in and out of the city,” they said in a joint statement.

Melbourne City Council controversially voted last week to ban rental e-scooters from its boundaries following a motion put forward by Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece, abruptly ending the state government’s trial, which is also running in Yarra and Port Phillip councils.

The three inner-north mayors said they were following developments from that decision, and would work with e-scooter operators and the state government as they explored how best to establish an e-scooter zone that spanned their municipalities.

Pulford said e-scooters were important to the city’s transport mix. Merri-bek Council is due to decide on bringing e-scooters and e-bikes to the municipality in early 2025.

Darebin Council has allocated $50,000 in the 2024-25 budget to trial e-scooters, while Moonee Valley Council has acknowledged the community and environmental benefits.

Darebin’s Susanne Newton said she hoped the northern bloc would help influence Melbourne City Council to reconsider abandoning e-scooters because it was “short-sighted”.

Those in favour of the ban argue that e-scooters have made footpaths unsafe, with many users disobeying road rules. Critics, however, say it is a knee-jerk reaction and e-scooter companies should be permitted to trial other solutions for poor behaviour.

E-scooters have been banned from the City of Melbourne.Credit: Jason South

The City of Melbourne decision will effectively cut off the city’s e-scooter zones from one another, as there will probably be geo-fencing so that batteries cut off at the boundary.

It means that e-scooter users from the inner-northern bloc trying to reach the CBD or Port Phillip would have to swap to another mode of transport to reach their destination.

Newton urged the City of Melbourne to keep working with neighbouring councils on a shared mobility plan.

“I was so disappointed to see this decision seem to come out of nowhere,” Newton said. “This is meant to be about connectivity and people having choice of transport.

“I feel really strongly that active transport has to be a big part of the picture … People want to go [to the city].”

Pulford said there was huge value in creating an inner-north zone, but that it would be great to connect the north and south via e-scooter through the City of Melbourne.

He said it was important to explore new solutions for issues associated with e-scooters, such as restrictive parking controls and technology that could detect and prevent riding on footpaths.

Moonee Valley’s Tyson said the City of Melbourne had unique challenges as the commercial capital, and he didn’t hold the ban against it.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said last week she opposed the ban and hoped a “commonsense” solution would be found, rather than forcing the state government to step in.

City of Melbourne officers were initially recommending e-scooters be permitted with new measures to rein in bad behaviour, until Reece – who is seeking election to the top job in October – successfully moved to withdraw from contracts with companies Neuron and Lime, giving them 30 days to remove their e-scooters from the city.

Reece’s motion came after fellow lord mayoral candidate Arron Wood announced he wanted to ban e-scooters from the Hoddle Grid.

Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams reiterated the government’s disappointment with the City of Melbourne. She said the government was increasing penalties for e-scooter offences from October, together with a new education campaign for riders.

“Melbourne’s scheme [is] one of the most popular in the world,” she said.

“E-scooters have proven to be an effective way to travel across Melbourne’s CBD – they reduce carbon emissions and provide shift workers a safe way to travel at all times of the day.”

Reece said the community’s safety was his highest priority, and he supported active transport in the form of bicycles.

“The safety of Melburnians is being jeopardised by [e-scooter] riders doing the wrong thing – riding on footpaths, double-dinking, riding without helmets and riding under the influence,” he said. “Too often, e-scooters are thrown across our footpaths and public spaces, creating trip hazards.

“Residents, visitors and traders have had enough.”

A Lime spokeswoman said the company was excited at the prospect of providing e-scooters to Merri-bek, Darebin and Moonee Valley.

“Since the start of 2024, Lime has had more than 40,000 trips end on the northern border of the City of Melbourne, solidifying the eagerness of this community for expansion,” she said.

She said Lime, which has spent $40 million on its operations in Melbourne, was still determining the best path forward regarding legal action against Melbourne City Council.

“We have taken nothing off the table.”

A Neuron spokesman said the company had been receiving inquiries from concerned riders and businesses who felt they were not consulted before the ban.

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