Unley Launches Latest Scooter Trial in Inner Adelaide

Adelaide, South Australia

Inner-city council area Unley is the latest Adelaide municipality to launch an e-scooter trial, signing up with Beam and Neuron Mobility for a service that began on Monday.

The trial, launched on the eve of Adelaide’s festival season, will run for six months, with a review planned for July to determine if it will be extended for another six months.

Riders will be able to travel throughout the City of Unley district and, with Adelaide’s Fringe Festival just weeks away, into the neighbouring City of Adelaide area.

A Beam statement said its data showed a trend towards increasingly longer rides and a “growing reliance on micromobility as a form of regular transport”. 

Beam will be operating its Saturn e-scooters for the trial, with tip-resistant kickstands, electric and mechanical brakes, a Bluetooth-locked helmet, and swappable batteries.

They will operate alongside Neuron’s N3 e-scooters, which have also been rolled out for trials in the Adelaide CBD, and the cities of Charles Sturt, West Torrens and Port Adelaide Enfield.

The latest trial will cover the entire City of Unley area, apart from an exclusion zone along a main arterial road, King William Road, and go-slow 10km/h zones in key streets with high pedestrian traffic or outdoor dining activity.

The City of Unley participated in a joint Expression of Interest process with the City of Norwood, Payneham & St Peters, which was completed in October 2020.

Neuron Mobility and Beam Mobility were selected for the two trials, with the City of Norwood, Payneham & St Peters launching its trial in May 2021.

Ride Kind campaign

Beam is implementing a Ride Kind media campaign at its Bunbury trial in WA, to mitigate non-compliance with e-rideable regulations.

The media campaign, set to launch at the end of February, will be accompanied by hand-tags for its scooters, incorporating instructions on how to park and ride safely in accordance with WA law. This will go live towards the end of February.

New advertising on the Beam app, to appear with people first download the app or as they start a trip, will inform riders about WA laws on wearing helmets and the minimum age requirement of 16.

Customers will also be eligible for five minutes of free ride time if they complete a Beam Safety Quiz on the app, also outlining WA’s e-rideables legislation.

A ‘three-strikes policy’ will aim to educate offending riders but will suspend a rider’s access to the Beam app after their third strike. The policy covers offences such as helmet compliance, riding dangerously and bad parking.

More serious offences, such as destruction of property, drink and underage riding, will result in immediate and permanent bans.

The company is also rolling out a similar campaign for its trials in Tasmania.