Melbourne’s central business district (CBD) will drop its rental e-scooter scheme shortly.
Lord mayor Nicholas Reece, leading the debate at the Future Melbourne Committee meeting at Melbourne Town Hall on Tuesday evening, says the scooters presented an unacceptable safety risk to the city and were “shameful”, The Guardian reports adding the oouncil voted six to four to end council contracts with Lime and Neuron as part of a two-year trial.
The Guardian says it is understood rental e-scooter operators will get 30 days’ notice.
Private e-scooters are exempt.
The council received 74 submissions and about 600 items of correspondence regarding the potential ban.
“Those against the motion cited a lack of consultation and data and said that the scheme was in need of tightened controls and regulation but did not warrant a ban,” says The Guardian.
It says Neuron Mobility Australia and New Zealand general manager Jayden Bryant earlier said the company had been in discussions with the council for weeks about how to “best optimise the city’s e-scooter program”.
“This goes over and above the reforms announced by the state government.”
The Allan Labor Government announced in July that from October public e-scooter schemes will be permanently legal.
It also announced stricter rules and penalties, including increased fines for riding on the footpath, not wearing a helmet, drinking alcohol while riding, riding while underage (under 16), a maximum 20km/h speed limit and using e-scooters only on roads with a less than 60km/h limit.
