Melbourne bans rental e-scooters for posing ‘unacceptable’ safety risk

Melbourne has banned rental electric scooters for posing an “unacceptable” safety risk to the public.

The decision comes two years after the Australian city introduced them in February 2022, initially on a trial basis.

“Too many people are riding on footpaths,” mayor Nicholas Reece told local radio station 3AW.

He was “fed up” with the bad behaviour of some scooter users which he said was increasingly causing accidents.

The scooters are scattered around the city “like confetti”, posing a public safety risk, the mayor said.

The growing popularity of electric scooters reflects in the number of reported injuries by the city’s hospitals.

The Royal Melbourne Hospital said in a 2023 report that its emergency department saw nearly 250 patients who had been injured riding scooters the previous year.

The city council voted 6-4 on Tuesday to ban the rental scooters and directed the operators, Lime and Neuron, to remove them within 30 days, even though they have six months of contract left.

The two operators have introduced about 1,500 scooters in Melbourne since the trial began in February 2022, the BBC reported.

Alleging that the “drastic” decision was made without “proper discussion”, Neuron’s local general manager Jayden Bryant told AFP that "if given the opportunity we could quickly implement a variety of measures to address many, if not all, of the councillors’ concerns”.

The ban could invite legal action against the council with a Lime spokesperson saying the company has “taken nothing off the table”.

Electric scooters have been deemed a transport revolution, allowing commuters to move around the city at a low cost and carbon imprint.

Victoria premier Jacinta Allan has not ruled out intervening to force the Melbourne city council to rethink and reverse the ban, The Guardian reported .

Questioning Mr Reece over his “change of heart” less than a month after he had endorsed e-scooters, Ms Allan said: “The lord mayor was out there talking about the 3 million trips that e-scooters have saved across the city, and how they have a role in that public transport network.”

“That is why, as part of our evaluation of the trials that have been underway in different parts of the state, we’ve recognised that e-scooters have a role, but that also the safety framework needed to be strengthened.”