Transport Minister Andrew Constance says he was “not in the mood” to have e-scooters on Sydney streets,even though his department ran a lengthy processrecommending conditions for holding a trial.
The National Transport Commission,the statutory body for developing road regulations,spent 18 months considering the barriers to the safe use of personal mobility devices,given state legislation has failed to keep up with advances in technology.
Its final 73-pagereport in August 2020 recommended e-scooters be allowed on footpaths capped at 10km/h and on bicycle paths and residential streets up to 25km/h.
“All modes of transport carry some degree of accident risk,” the report says,noting it is “very difficult to quantify” how risky scooters are because it depends on how they are used.
Commercial outfits including Lime,Beam and Neuron operate share schemes in Brisbane,Adelaide and Canberra where users pay by the minute,while e-scooters are popular in dozens of cities worldwide.
Mr Constance,however,claims these schemes are “a disaster”.