Scooter News: Third Extention for Melbourne Trial, Next Round of Queensland Laws, & Poland Scooter Ban

Melbourne, Victoria

An e-scooter trial in three inner Melbourne local government areas has been extended for a third time so the State Government can further assess the share services during the busy summer months.

The trial in the cities of City of Melbourne, Yarra and Port Phillip will now run until 5th April 2024, giving the government another six months to decide if it will legalise them indefinitely in the State.

“The trial has been successful over the winter months, but we’re keen to see it operate over an extended holiday period and in warmer weather to ensure our datasets are comprehensive,” Victoria’s Minister for Public and Active Transport, Gabrielle Williams, said at the start of this month.

It was originally launched in February 2022 and share service operators Neuron and Lime were granted a two-month extension in January 203.

When another six months were added to the trial in March, the Victorian Government also removed a ban on personal electric scooters.

Next Round of Queensland E-Scooter Laws

Queensland parliament is set to consider additional laws designed to encourage the safe use of e-scooters and other Personal Mobility Devices (PMD).

The proposed laws, recently presented to parliament, will make it an offence for a rider of a PMD or bike to ride without due care and attention on a road-related area, such as a footpath, bike path or shared path.

This law already applies on roads and the proposed change ensures careless riding will be able to be enforced on other relevant infrastructure.

According to a statement from the Queensland Government, the proposed laws will also “better align post-crash obligations for all drivers and riders, including ensuring drivers and riders involved in a crash stop, remain at the scene, render any medical assistance to any injured person, and exchange relevant information, such as name and address details”.

These obligations currently do not apply consistently to PMD and bike riders on roads and paths. The proposed amendments will ensure anyone involved in a crash has the same rights, no matter where the crash occurs.

It is a follow-up phase of e-scooter reforms, after the Government released a PMD Safety Action Plan in mid-2022.

Since the release of the plan, the Department of Transport and Main Roads has delivered on 16 of the 18 actions, including a comprehensive package of road rule changes that began on 1 November 2022, public education campaigns, and high-profile enforcement blitzes with the Queensland Police Service.

The Government says the reforms aim to strike the right balance between PMDs as an emerging form of mobility and the safety of all path and road users.

“E-Scooters are a great way to get around, but their social licence depends on users doing the right thing,” Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said.

Prague Ban

E-Scooter parking has been banned in a central district of the Czech Republic capital of Prague.

Officials in District 1, which includes much of the city’s medieval historic heart of the city, recently voted unanimously to prohibit the parking of electric scooters in the area’s public spaces.

One official behind the bid to ban e-scooters said having the scooters cluttering footpaths and endangering the elderly population, often with two people on board, was “incompatible with life in this part of the city.”

A senior police official from the district reportedly revealed police dealt with 4.352 scooter offences during a six-month period, eight times more than the number of bike-related offences during the same period.

It follows the highly-publicised decision to ban e-scooter share services in Paris, after Mayor Anne Hidalgo held a referendum on the issue.