Share-hire scooters to be banned in the City of Melbourne

Renting e-scooters at Melbourne’s CBC will soon be a thing of the past, following a series of complaints about the popular vehicles.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece will table an amended motion at a meeting of the Future Melbourne committee on Tuesday. Herald Sun reported.

The motion calls for termination of contracts with e-scooter suppliers Lime and Neuron, which operate in the city.

It is expected that the motion will be adopted and that most council members will support the proposal.

If the measure is successful, shared e-scooters could be removed from the CBD from mid-September.

The council must notify companies that lease shares 30 days in advance.

The potential termination of the contracts will not affect privately owned e-scooters, which can still be used in the CBD and nearby towns of Carlton and Southbank.

A recent report from the council’s board to the Futures Melbourne committee meeting outlined a range of new measures.

The motion to ban all shared electric scooters will not affect the use of private e-scooters in the city which was introduced in April 2023 (pictured Brynne Edelsten on an e-scooter in Melbourne)

The recommendations were intended to counter the unsafe use and dangerous driving behaviour of shared cars.

Some suggestions included limiting the number of e-scooters, increasing fines and introducing new exclusion zones.

But despite the potential tough measures, the council changed its mind on Monday after residents and businesses in the city called for the plan to be scrapped.

Former Melbourne mayor Sally Capp backed the share lease plan, which now has around 1,500 e-scooters on the road in the city.

Just last week, the current mayor admitted that renting out e-scooters is popular, but that there are also some ‘serious problems’.

“I admit I was a supporter of e-scooters when they first came on the market, but I’m fed up with the rules being flouted and scooters being littered all over the city,” Cr Reece said.

He added that the e-scooters were also cluttering the city’s sidewalks, posing a tripping hazard and causing “mobility issues.”

A man running for mayor in the next election said he would let e-scooters stay but would reduce their speed to 12km/h (pictured men on e-scooters in Melbourne)

“Motorcyclists continue to break the law, endanger others and themselves and cause disruption on our streets,” he said.

Cr Reece added that most riders are ‘doing the right thing’ but others are putting not only themselves but other people at risk.

Former deputy mayor Arron Wood said he will vote against the motion, as he sees shared scooters as “a valuable part of Melbourne’s transport mix”.

“Less than 48 hours later, we hear that the mayor will introduce a motion tomorrow night to terminate the scooter contracts without any form of due process,” he said.