Source: ABC News

The different legal statuses of both private and public e-scooters in Australian states has prompted discussion around standardising the regulations

Experts have dubbed the rulings for e-scooters across Australia “confusing”, with some states including New South Wales and South Australia seeking to legalise the use of private e-scooters, whereas Melbourne ended a shared e-scooter trial early over safety concerns. Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece highlighted concerns about the way they are used in the city, saying, “There are literally more people disobeying the law on e-scooters than there are actually following the rules.”

‘Wild West’ of regulations

Richard Buning, the University of Queensland research lead for micromobility, said, “The e-scooter legislation across the country is all over the place. It is the Wild West. It is an absolute mess. We call them different things. Some places are e-rideables, in Queensland we call them personal mobility devices. We can’t even decide what we want to call them in the first place.” Currently, private e-scooters (personal mobility devices) are legal in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and the ACT, but prohibited in New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia. In the states where private e-scooters are legal, different rules are in place for acceleration speed and where they can be ridden.

Dr. Buning highlighted the advantages for city residents and tourists of e-scooters, saying, “If you are a working professional or a student and you can’t afford a car or public transport doesn’t work for you, they are probably perhaps the easiest solution for you to get there in a sustainable way.” For tourists, they represent a flexible option, he says: “Normally transport is the annoying part of travel and if you’re a tourist and you’re in the city, public transport is typically off the cards for you. Tourists find buses very confusing.”

Shared e-scooters’ safety

Narelle Howarth, researcher at the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland, views shared-use e-scooters as safer, thanks to their ability to be controlled. “The shared ones are actually the ones that government can most easily regulate because with the shared ones they can’t operate unless they get a permit from the local government.” She did acknowledge that they can present a safety risk for users who are often inexperienced and unlikely to wear helmets – a factor which her research shows is strongly linked to a rider’s understanding and support of the law.

Regarding private e-scooters, Howarth highlighted their ability to be ridden at high speeds and to be modified, and called for tighter rulings. “The first thing you have to do is to get the regulations and we haven’t done that. We certainly haven’t done that in terms of what can come into the country. Then we need to have settings at the state government level which will relate to how fast and where e-scooters can be used and then we can educate people about what those rules are.”

Infrastructure improvements for greater harmony

To enable pedestrians and e-scooters to coexist, Alexa Delbosc of the Monash Institute of Transport Studies says that the infrastructure needs to be in place for e-scooter users and cyclists. Simply removing e-scooters from cities would only reduce the number of urban transport options. She adds, “If you provide safe, separated infrastructure, people use it. The proportion of people riding on the footpath was cut in half in a place where there was a bike lane compared to a street where there was no bike lane. If we want people to be riding bikes or scooters in a safe way, we need to be providing more safe separated infrastructure.”

Delbosc emphasised that existing regulations need to be enforced more strongly and consistently. “It would pay back in goodwill from the community and from people doing the right thing. If people don’t think they’re going to get caught, they’re just going to keep riding on a footpath, and clearly there wasn’t enough enforcement [in Melbourne].”