Eight Sydney councils are in discussions about hosting the scooters,including the City of Sydney,Inner West,Waverley,Randwick,Northern Beaches and Bayside councils.
But public safety fears have stalled the launch of the Sydney trial,which wasfirst flagged for Manly last summer. Shared e-scooter schemes already operate in Brisbane and Adelaide and many overseas cities,and scooter companies have criticised the strict conditions proposed by the NSW government.
Secret documents obtained by theSun-Herald show the proposed trial would temporarily lift the scooter ban in specific council areas and allow at least two companies to lease scooters to the public. A dozen scooter companies are jostling to win the contract for the trial in Australia's largest market,including Uber,Lime,Beam,Bird,Bolt,Frog,Jump,Neuron and Ride.
As well as restricting the scooters to riders aged over 18 who hold a driver’s licence,riding after dark would be banned and scooter companies would be forced to remove the vehicles from the street each night. Riders would be compelled to wear helmets and mobile phone use would be penalised.
Evan Walker,director of Transport for NSW's smart innovation centre,said it was important to"strike the balance"between safety and effective mobility solutions.
"Electric scooters in Queensland and South Australia operate on footpaths,but Sydney is a bit different. It's the oldest city in the country,there's a lot of people and our footpaths aren't designed for motor vehicles,"Mr Walker told theSun-Herald.
"The safest thing would be to have scooters operating slow,but then would that provide any transport utility?"