City of Melbourne bans share hire e-scooters from the CBD

The City of Melbourne has walked back on its contracts with e-scooter share hire providers Lime and Neuron, citing community safety concerns.

At the Future Melbourne Committee meeting on August 13, a report from council management had recommended any longer-term procurement be deferred until the effectiveness of new Victorian Government regulations was proven.

In July, Minister for Public and Active Transport Gabrielle Williams announced the introduction of tougher rules to improve safety alongside Lord Mayor Nick Reece, proclaiming e-scooters “were here to stay”.

“We know there have been safety concerns, and that’s why we have thoroughly assessed their use and are introducing some of the toughest new laws in the country to make e-scooters safer,” Minister Williams said.

“They’ve proven popular among commuters, especially shift workers, providing an additional option to travel home safely.”

However, the Lord Mayor would ultimately introduce an alternative motion, which was leaked to the media the day before the August 13 meeting, that instead called for a complete ban of shared e-scooters from the municipality.

Councillors voted six to four in favour of the motion, which gave providers five days’ notice, after which they will have 30 days to cease operations and remove all 1500 e-scooters from the City of Melbourne.

The controversial surprise proposal to ban hire e-scooters on the eve of the council meeting drew a significant number of submissions from right across the community, with many turning up to speak for and against.

In a press conference on August 14, Lord Mayor Nick Reece said that while there were “good arguments on both sides,” the concern for community safety prevailed.

“We heard from shop traders in the city, we heard from residents, we heard from the head of the emergency department at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, we heard from a blind lady. They told us that the city’s footpaths have not been safe,” Cr Reece said.

They told us that the e-scooter trial has not worked and there are just too many people breaking the rules, people not wearing helmets, double-dinking, riding on footpaths, creating a hazard for people around the city.

The council meeting heard more than 600 submissions, including from the head of emergency medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Mark Putland, who said that up to 40 patients were presenting to the department each month with injuries from e-scooter accidents.

Cr Reece said that the city’s bike share services would continue.

“The fact is, we haven’t seen the problems with the share bikes that we’ve seen with the e-scooters,” he said. “We don’t see the lawlessness with the bikes. I, for one, am pleased to see those share bikes continuing in Melbourne.” 

In July, the Victorian Government legalised the use of both share hire e-scooters and private e-scooters statewide and introduced tougher regulations to improve safety.

The measures would have come into effect in the City of Melbourne in October and included increased fines for riding on the footpath, drinking while riding, not wearing a helmet and underage riding.

The changes will also see new offences introduced for riding as a passenger and not wearing a helmet as a passenger.

The regulations followed the government’s announcement that it would allow for the use of e-scooters state-wide after a successful two-year trial which will end on October 4 in the municipalities of Melbourne, Yarra and Port Phillip.

In 2022, former Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the trial was “one of the most successful in the world,” reaching one million trips in just four months compared to London which took a year to meet the same milestone.

Since then, e-scooters have soared in popularity across Melbourne.

When appearing alongside Minister Williams in July, Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece praised the trial, noting that more than nine million trips had been taken, adding that almost a third of these trips were in place of car trips.

But in relation to the new regulations, Cr Reece since said, “That was a matter for the state government, and we were supportive of those. Every step forward that makes e-scooters safer and better regulates the scheme is a step forward.”

“The contracts only had a few more months to run in any case. We made the decision that we couldn’t wait another six months given the safety hazards.”

Cr Rohan Leppert, one of the four councillors to vote against the motion to ban e-scooters along with councillors Dr Ball, Hakim, and Mary O’Sullivan Myles (formerly Doidge), said the council didn’t have enough data on the trial yet to make an informed decision.

Cr Dr Ball described Cr Reece’s motion as “kneejerk”, noting that it was “a shame” the matter had come before the council so close to October’s local government elections. Meanwhile Cr Hakim said even though he supported all arguments on the issue, a sudden ban didn’t represent the right kind of “circuit breaker” needed given the government’s new regulations hadn’t been tested.

Councillors Louey, Campbell, Change, Le Liu and Griffiths made up the other councillors who voted in favour the Lord Mayor’s motion to end the scheme. •