Electric scooters banned in Melbourne over serious safety concerns - could the UK follow suit?
The Mayor of Melbourne said e-scooters were causing tripping hazards for pedestrians and cyclists
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The Australian city of Melbourne has banned the use of rental electric scooters after officials and locals said they were making streets more dangerous for all road users.
The second largest city in Australia has cracked down on the use of e-scooters after hundreds of complaints to the council about their use, with the Mayor of Melbourne taking particular exception to the urban mobility vehicles.
A rental trial of e-scooters has been running since February 1, 2022, with partners Lime and Neuron providing around 1,500 scooters to use around the city.
The trial was scheduled to finish in October 2024 after the Victorian Government announced a six-month extension at the start of April earlier this year.
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Trial operators have 30 days to remove the e-scooters from the streets of Melbourne
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However, speaking to local radio station 3AW, Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nicholas Reece said: “Too many people [are] riding on footpaths.
"People don’t park them properly. They’re tipped, they’re scattered around the city like confetti, like rubbish, creating tripping hazards."
On Tuesday evening, city councillors voted 6-4 to ban the scooters almost immediately, with the two operators being ordered to remove the scooters within 30 days.
Both Lime and Neuron had called on users to petition the city council to keep the scooters on streets with the vehicles being used to cut transport carbon emissions by more than 400 tonnes since the trials started.
Jayden Bryant, a spokesperson for Neuron, told Australian media: "This goes over and above the reforms announced by the state government.
“It is very odd that [a different] tabled proposal for the introduction of new e-scooter technology can change to become a proposal for a ban.”
Despite this, a report from the Royal Melbourne Hospital from December 2023 found that almost 250 scooter-riders ended up in the emergency department with injuries in 2022.
Several factors were blamed for these instances, including riders being intoxicated, speeding and not wearing a helmet - which is recommended for anyone riding an e-scooter.
This follows a public vote in Paris last September which voted to ban rental e-scooters across the French capital following a string of incidents, with 90 per cent of voters backing measures to ban the vehicles.
Industry experts in the UK will now be wondering whether similar measures could be introduced in the UK. There are around 30 rental schemes operating around the country, many of which will be in operation until May 2026.
Many petitions have been launched through the UK Parliament portal calling for a range of measures to be introduced, including banning them from streets, restricting access to under 18s and banning them from pedestrian walkways.
Other petitions have been launched to introduce regulations on e-scooters, e-bikes, as well as the batteries and chargers sold with them.
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E-scooter trials were extended until 2026PAThe petition has been backed by the London Fire Brigade following the death of a 21-year-old woman who lost her life after the "catastrophic failure" of a lithium battery used to charge an e-bike.
Charlie Pugsley, assistant commissioner for fire safety at London Fire Brigade, said: "We’re warning people that cheaper parts bought online are more likely to be unsafe, increasing the risk of a fire."