Right: E-scooters are apparently a hit with tourists in Paris, but the machines have caused injuries and deaths. Local governments are calling for legislation to clarify the scooter's status and whether insurance should be made compulsory.
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Arguments against legalising e-scooters in Australia
1. E-scooters are not environmentally friendly
Those who oppose Australia legalising e-scooters and so encouraging their wider use argue that these sooters do not offer the environmental benefits often claimed for them. In fact, it is argued, they may be no better, if not worse, than the cars they are partially replacing.
Studies have shown that e-scooters are not the environmental boon they are often claimed to be. According to under-graduate research conducted for the North Carolina State University Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Research and published on August 2, 2019, the environmental benefits of e-scooters are currently over-stated. The researchers found that scooters emit about 202 g of CO2 per km and per passenger over their entire life cycle. This is about as much as a conventional car and 3.5 times more than an electric car.
The problem with e-scooters in terms of their environmental burden lies primarily in the ecological impact of their manufacture and the recycling of their component parts, together with the current inefficiency of recharging their batteries. The researchers stated, 'The manufacturing phase is quite heavy: it is necessary to build a battery for each scooter that then only allows for the transportation of one person. Ultimately, 50 percent of the carbon impact is linked to the vehicle's production.' The next issue is battery recharging. The study showed, 'The second biggest problem is charging electric scooters. Indeed, they must be collected and moved to be recharged, and that means using trucks that emit CO2. This weighs heavily on the balance sheet: 43% of greenhouse gas emissions are linked to recharging.' The final concern is how the e-scooter is disposed of when it is no longer ridable. Recycling is important because electric scooters are made of rare and potentially polluting materials. It is, therefore, necessary to reprocess their batteries (and the vehicle cell itself). This is also energy expensive. Part of what makes the manufacture and recycling of e-scooters so environmentally burdensome is that these vehicles do not last as long as a conventional or electric cars. On average, e-scooters in a ride-share fleet last for 9 to 18 months, while personal ones last for up to three years. The efficiency of a personal e-scooter reduces after the first two years.
This is about four times less than the life span of the average petrol-fueled car. According to Consumer Reports, the average lifespan of today's cars is about eight years or 240,000 kilometres. That's shorter, however than many well-built cars that are properly maintained. E-vehicles are estimated to last for as long as conventional vehicles. This makes the heavy environmental impact of the e-scooters' component parts, especially their batteries, more significant.Another factor that needs to be considered is that e-scooters are not all-purpose vehicles. They offer no protection from the weather, limited storage capacity and will carry only one passenger. The speed of an e-scooter depends on the brand, model, and purpose of the e-scooter. Average commuter electric scooters can reach from 25 kph to 40 kph. Meanwhile, high-speed electric scooters can go up to 80 kph. A few electric scooters in the market can go over 100 kph.
However, the speed of the scooter is affected by the terrain, the weight of the rider and the capacity of the battery. For these reasons, for many users, e-scooters are supplementary transportation, used for short trips in built-up areas. From an environmental perspective this means that e-scooters are unlikely to replace cars for most users and that most e-scooter riders will also own a car. The environmental impact of the manufacture of the scooter is therefore an additional burden to that involved in the manufacture of the rider's car.Finally, the large environmental advantage e-scooters offer is that they contribute no greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere while being ridden; however, in states such as Victoria, where no more than 50 percent of electricity is generated from renewable energy, then the electricity used to charge the e-scooter's battery becomes an additional burden.
2. E-scooters are dangerous and are not well-suited to current urban environments
Those who oppose Australia legalising e-scooters and so encouraging their wider use argue that these scooters are a hazard and unsuited to the urban environments where they are usually ridden.
Opponents of the e-scooters note that they are dangerous whether ridden on footpaths or on roadways. Dr Lee Roberts, an urban planner and active transport researcher at UNSW City Futures Research Centre, has noted that our current cityscapes do not allow for micro-mobility transport such as bikes and e-scooters to be ridden without risk. Dr Roberts has stated, 'In a place like greater Sydney, the infrastructure has lagged behind the innovations in technology. There are only so many places where you can ride a bike and feel completely comfortable and safe.' The same claims have been made with regard to e-scooters.
Referring to the risks in Melbourne, the Alfred Hospital's acting director of trauma services, Joseph Mathew, has stated, 'Our spaces at the moment are not designed to share a new transport modality.' The increased use of e-scooters is resulting in dramatic rises in injuries in Australia and around the world. Research by Monash University's Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit recorded 124 visits to emergency departments for electric scooter related injuries in the year to July 1, 2021, a 359 per cent increase on the previous year.
On August 26, 2022, The Herald Sun reported, 'E-scooter and e-bike-related admissions to the state's trauma centre have doubled from 24 in 2020-21 to 49 in 2021-22, while the number of people needing intensive care almost quadrupled over that same period.' Similar patterns of spiraling injuries have been observed in other countries. In the United Kingdom, more than 1,000 people were injured in e-scooter accidents in 2021, including over 300 who were seriously injured. In 2020, there had been less than 60 injuries and less than 15 serious injuries involving e-scooters. In September 2022, three Australian e-scooter riders were killed in accidents, doubling the number of fatalities since 2018, when the first rental scheme was rolled out in Queensland. Moustafa Abou-Eid, 28, lost control of a scooter on a speed hump in Pascoe Vale in Melbourne on 22 September, 19-year-old Laura Wallace died when the scooter she was riding collided with a car in Canberra on 26 September, and a 37-year-old man died on 29 September after losing control of his scooter on a Brisbane street.
Referring to the risks posed when these scooters are ridden on footpaths, Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore has stated, 'The data from emergency departments both nationally and internationally on e-scooter injuries is sobering. The risks, not just for riders but for pedestrians, especially people with disability and the elderly, are obvious.'
Vision Australia has warned that those who are blind or have low vision are especially at risk, with a new survey revealing 50 percent of vision impaired people have been involved in an accident or near-miss with an e-scooter. Chris Edwards, Vision Australia's manager of government relations and advocacy, has stated, 'Imagine how frightening it is knowing this could knock you over at any time you're walking down the street.' Of the 120 people who completed the survey, 82 percent said they did not feel safe walking on footpaths and about 40 per use now use footpaths less often. E-scooters on footpaths pose a particular hazard to vulnerable pedestrians. On roads, however, e-scooters place their riders at greater risk. Factors such as the speed differences between e-scooters and motorised vehicles, the vulnerability of e-scooters (e.g., a lack of a protective vehicle body) and e-scooter riders being less visible to motorists increase the possibility of collisions in which riders will be severely hurt.
Critics argue that e-scooters are safe neither on most roads (as they are currently configured), nor on footpaths. A recent UCLA study found that the injuries associated with e-scooters were more frequent than those associated with other forms of motorized transportation. Researchers studied over 1,300 e-scooter-related accidents involving riders and pedestrians occurring between 2014 and 2020. They determined that e-scooters caused 115 injuries per million trips. For comparison, the national injury rate for cars is eight injuries per million trips. The injury rate for bicycles is 15 per million trips, and the injury rate for motorcycles is 104 injuries per million trips.
3. E-scooters may not significantly reduce congestion
Those who oppose Australia legalising e-scooters and so encouraging their wider use argue that these scooters may not be the solution to traffic congestion that some claim.
Critics of the legalisation of e-scooters and of their increased use argue that their capacity to reduce congestion has been exaggerated. They further claim that where e-scooter use does reduce road congestion it increases the hazards to which riders are exposed.
The extent to which e-scooters reduce road traffic congestion depends on the quality of the transport services already available to commuters. In cities already well serviced with footpaths, public transport, bike lanes and bike paths, all that is likely to happen if e-scooter use becomes popular is that commuters will swap one low-congestion form of transport for another. When Paris Lime users were asked in a survey how they would have made their trips if they had not had a scooter, 47 percent said they would have walked, 29 percent would have used public transport, 9 percent would have biked and only 8 percent would have used a car.
The areas where e-scooter use is likely to reduce car use and so road congestion are those where other low-congestion transport options are not readily available. Unfortunately, these are also likely to be areas where e-scooter use is unsafe because there is no specifically designed infrastructure. It has also been noted that while e-scooters might reduce congestion on roads, they are currently increasing it on footpaths and in other public spaces given over to pedestrians.
United States research has noted that the proliferation of e-scooters immediately generated spatial conflicts on streets and sidewalks. News articles and social media postings highlighted
concerns over e-scooters and where and how they were parked. During the first e-scooter pilot in Portland, Oregon, in 2019, 14 percent of the complaints mentioned misplaced scooters. 76 percent of e-scooters observed failed at least one of the Portland's parking
compliance requirements and 59 percent failed at least two.
For example, Portland required that e-scooters not be parked near disabled parking places, alleyways, crosswalks, fire hydrants or taxi loading zones. The misparking or dumping of e-scooters is claimed to be a particular problem when the scooters are hire vehicles. The various expediencies the companies adopt to ensure the scooters are parked appropriately are claimed to be ineffective. Clive Hamilton, a Canberra-born environmentalist and a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University, has complained, 'Unlike privately owned scooters, rented e-scooters can be seen parked on roads, on median strips and across cycle lanes. One was seen abandoned on the footpath over Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, a path crowded enough on weekends already.'
The hazards created by blocked walkways has also been raised by the pedestrians' lobby group, Victoria Walks. The group have noted, 'Pedestrians who are forced to veer off the overcrowded footpaths are at serious risk of being injured by oncoming cyclists and motorists. Obstruction of the footpaths also creates particular problems for parents with prams and those who rely on mobility aides.' This issue has been raised by the Queensland Transport and Main Roads Minister, Mark Bailey, who has complained, 'Too often I see them left in locations blocking paths which creates significant problems for people walking - especially those with limited mobility.' It has been claimed that the misparking or dumping of e-scooters poses particular hazards for those who are vision impaired. The problem of poorly parked e-scooters has been noted in Canberra. Kendra Wells, Vision Australia Canberra's regional client services manager, has warned, 'I've seen them in front of ramps, in front of stairs and around corners so people can't see them. They're not actually easy to move then when they're stopped.'
A survey conducted by Vision Australia found that 61 percent of respondents had 'encountered a trip hazard by a vehicle being left on the footpath.' 4. There should be appropriate infrastructure before e-scooters are legalised
In February 2022, industry feedback suggested more than 250,000 e-scooters and personal mobility devices had been sold and were being used throughout Australia. The industry predicted that the number of privately owned vehicles would continue to grow at record rates with legalisation likely to lift this beyond the anticipated 100,000 sales a year.
Those who oppose Australia immediately legalising e-scooters and so encouraging their wider use argue that there should be major infrastructure modifications before legalisation. In August 2021, the International Transport Forum (ITF) - an intergovernmental organisation that acts as a think tank for transport policy - recommended that safe use of e-scooters required the immediate installation of appropriate infrastructure.
ITF analyst Pierpaolo Cazzola stated, 'An infrastructure that is usable for e-scooters is crucial to improve safety. This has different characteristics compared to a road considered for a car. The road network currently in place in most cities is not conceived for these types of vehicles. It will be important to adapt it.'
Such infrastructure adaptation includes the establishment of parallel transport systems such as the extension of existing bike lanes which could be used by all forms of micromobility. Another ITF analyst Alexandre Santacreu explained, 'Best practice from cycling countries like the Netherlands and Denmark is effectively transposable to e-scooters. There is nothing to change - just build protected, wide bike lanes and you should not have much problem in terms of serious crashes. Just apply best practices in bike lane design. Countries such as Australia, which are less well equipped with bike lanes, would need to make more modifications to infrastructure to properly allow for the safe use of e-scooters. Alexandre Santacreu stated, 'We make the case for better infrastructure, one that offers physical protection from motor vehicle traffic, one that is self-explaining, and one that is forgiving. Improving infrastructure is the number one recommendation from the safety report. It is the most urgent and most efficient solution to promote the use of micromobility but also to make it safe.
Seville in Spain implemented a very wide network of protected bike lanes in just a few years. They totally changed the shape of the city and cycling use exploded. So, it is feasible, and it is not necessarily expensive.'
The need for separate infrastructure comes from the fact that the greatest hazard to the rider of an e-scooter is collision with a motor vehicle. Alexandre Santacreu explained, 'We concluded that what determines the risk of death on low-speed, lightweight vehicles is contact with motor vehicles. That is the same whether you're on a bicycle or on an e-bike. Eight deaths out of 10 on a bike or an e-scooter involve a motor vehicle.'
Cities around the world are recognising that they must make adequate provision for micromobility vehicles before their numbers grow even larger. After four scooter deaths in a matter of months, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms promised an infrastructure overhaul including temporary barriers, painted demarcations and 'any tool we can find to complement' its 188 miles of dedicated bike and scooter lanes. Lance stated, 'This new trend in micro-mobility compels us to find the safest, most pragmatic ways to manage these options, and facilitate their proliferation, without endangering users and others.'
Finally, providing appropriate parking for e-scooters is an infrastructure priority to reduce the pedestrian risk and the congestion otherwise created. Paris has led the way in making infrastructure provision for e-scooters. The city has built on-street corrals especially for e-scooters, as well as extending existing parking locations traditionally used by two-wheelers (that is, mopeds and motorcycles). Currently, scooters can only park in dedicated scooter spots or in motorised two-wheel parking spots.
In an observation that could be made about most Australian urban centres, transport researcher at the UNSW City Futures Research Centre, Dr Lee Roberts, has stated, 'In a place like greater Sydney, the infrastructure has lagged behind the innovations in technology. There are only so many places where you can ride a bike and feel completely comfortable and safe.'
5. There should be appropriate regulation before the e-scooters are legalised.
Those who oppose Australia immediately legalising e-scooters and so encouraging their wider use argue that there should be appropriate regulation of riders, e-scooters, and the riding environment before such legalisation occurs.
Critics argue that a suit of regulations needs to be put in place across all Australian jurisdictions where e-scooters are legalised. Requirements are currently inconsistent. In some Australian States and Territories, such as South Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia, you can ride e-scooters with a normal driver's license. In other Australian States and Territories like New South Wales, Australian, Tasmania and Victoria, riders need to have specific training. This tends to be the requirement of the e-bike hire companies. In no jurisdiction is there enforcement of this for private owners of e-scooters.
The rideability of privately owned e-scooters is also not consistently regulated. There are no requirements for mirrors. Under Queensland regulations there is the requirement that e-scooters must have an effective stopping system controlled by using brakes, gears or motor controlled and a working bell, horn or a similar warning device (if the e-scooter has handlebars). The mobility device must also not have sharp protrusions. If the e-scooter is ridden at night or in obscuring weather conditions, the scooter must have a front-mounted white light and a rear-mounted red light and a red reflector. These provisions are not uniform across all states and territories. Some states, for example, do not allow night riding at all and some will only allow it with lights that meet their specific specifications.
Further, rental e-scooters within approved trials have strict construction requirements that privately owned e-scooters do not. For example, hired e-scooters have pre-set speed limits. In contrast, it is possible to toggle speeds on a private e-scooter, and they are capable of much faster speeds than the usual 25km/h limit.
Australian jurisdictions would need to decide if they wanted privately owned e-scooters fitted with speed governors. Further, although the National Transport Commission recommended in 2020 that e-scooters be limited to a speed of 10 km/h on footpaths and 25km/h on roads or bike lanes, some states have allowed higher speeds on roads and footpaths. Another unresolved question is that of injury compensation. Third parties who are injured by an e-scooter rider on a hired bike are in a difficult position. This is because only parties to a contract can incur rights and obligations under the contract. E-scooter contracts are between the user and the respective company, so those who are struck by e-scooters, or trip over a poorly parked one, have no contractual rights against the company. The injured person would need to sue the individual rider.
If hit by a rider of a privately owned e-scooter the injured person would also need to sue the individual rider. Without a registration scheme requiring riders to take out compulsory third party insurance, injured pedestrians may never receive payment.
Finally, there is the question of whether some road laws need to be altered to better accommodate e-scooter riders. For example, there is the suggestion that the speed limit on suburban side streets be significantly lowered. Professor Matthew Burke, the chair of Transport Academic Partnership (TAP), and the Transport Innovation and Research Hub (TIRH) chair at Griffith University's Cities Research Institute, has stated, 'Australia hasn't done a lot of that, most of Europe has turned all its little local neighbourhood streets, the small little ones in the suburbs, to 30 km/h. That gets the cars, the cyclists, the scooters and everything else all travelling at pretty much the same speed.
Cars don't tend to crash into anything at 30 km/h and if they do, they tend to stop or will be running at very low speed with very little impact when they do. They tend not to kill pedestrians or cyclists. That just creates a very low risk environment.'
Again, critics argue, decisions such as those involving road laws should also be made prior to legislation.