Convenience or hazard? The states and territories for and against public e-scooters
Hiring an e-scooter can be a convenient way to navigate busy CBDs, while also being environmentally friendly.
But they've been criticised for being linked to hundreds of accidents and injuries, prompting bans across major cities.
Here are the state and territories for and against public e-scooters.
Victoria
While Victoria is the most recent state to implement a ban on hire e-scooters, canning them from Melbourne's CBD, there are still parts of the city which embrace the e-transport devices.
About 1500 e-scooters were removed after Melbourne city council voted to scrap contracts with operators Neuron and Lime.
Privately owned e-scooters can still be ridden within the city.
Yarra City Council, however, made a move to encourage e-scooter and e-bike use by repurposing footpaths to include physical parking bays.
Walking paths littered with obstacles may soon be a thing of the past after Yarra City Council added physical parking bays for electronic scooters and bikes across Richmond, Abbotsford and Fitzroy in Melbourne's inner city, following similar designs in Brisbane.
The parking spaces are being painted onto footpaths in suburbs across the council and there are plans for 40 more spaces to be added.
A spokesperson for Yarra City Council said there are now nine bays installed in the area so far.
They have all been funded by the council in a bid to improve safety and parking compliance.
Pictured here is a parking bay in Richmond.
A spokesperson for Lime confirmed the parking across Yarra City Council is is the first of its kind in Victoria.
Lime, one of the two e-scooter and e-bike operators in Yarra, said the designated parking spaces will encourage more riders to opt for safe, environmentally-friendly transport.
Lime said it is working with councils across Victoria, Brisbane and Sydney to roll out more marked parking bays.
More spaces are planned to open in the next month.
In January, Yarra City Council changed e-scooter parking rules to ban riders from parking on footpaths narrower than 2-metres wide.
Lime and Neuron implemented this change using geofencing technology, which prevents riders from ending their trip on these sidewalks.
Queensland
Five years ago Queensland became the first state to welcome rideshare e-scooters to its CBD.
However, there are ongoing questions around safety concerns after 25 per cent of e-scooter injuries presented to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital involved alcohol, with at least one e-scooter injury reported every day.
It prompted the state government to implement harsher fines for rulebreakers and halve the speed limit down to 12km/h.
New South Wales
NSW rolled out a state-wide trial of shared electronic scooters earlier this year.
Approved trial sites include; Kogarah, Albury, Forster-Tuncurry, Wollongong and Armidale.
As part of the trial public e-scooters are not permitted on footpaths and must stick to a 20km/h speed limit.
Personal e-scooters remain illegal and are only permitted for use on private property.
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