By Stephen Coulter & Krystyna Weston, Founders Zipidi Micromobility & Convenors of the Asia Pacific Micromobility Alliance
Victoria announced today three urban and one regional City to trial rental eScooters for Victoria. The Cities of Melbourne, Port Phillip & Yarra will be the urban testing area. These three contiguous local governments cover Melbourne’s CBD and the inner south, east and north. Ballarat will be the regional city trialling escooters.
Melbourne is a perfect city for scooters, with its very flat landscape already well served by off-road bike trails identified in the map above. A growing on-road bike path network will further support an increasing range of micromobility devices. Victoria will also allow scooters on shared pathways and local roads with 50kmh or less speed limits.
The three local governments capture many of Melbourne’s major shopping, entertainment, sporting and tourism districts. Major venues include the MCG, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne Park Tennis Centre, the Grand Prix Circuit, Flemington Race Course and Melbourne Zoo, to name a few. Existing bikes paths along the Bay, the Yarra and through Melbourne's beautiful parks are sure to attract riders.
The selected region looks to be one of the better escooter trial regions of the world with so many amenities and attractions within it.
As Melbourne emerges from lockdown in Q4, fun, fresh air, COVID-safe travel on scooters will support local journeys and local businesses. Rental scooters in other cities in Australia and worldwide are proving successful in generating increased businesses for local businesses. Scooter (&bike riders) are far more likely to stop and spend locally than car drivers.
Ballarat will be the regional city to trial scooters. Famous as a wealthy goldrush town from the 1850s, Ballarat is blessed with wide streets, beautiful Lake Wendouree, and is a central Victorian business and education hub.
Ballarat is also famous for the Eureka Stockade rebellion which is identified with the birth of democracy in Australia. We hope eScooters in Ballarat have the same impact on modernising Australian States’ mobility laws!
The key escooter rules for Victoria include:
- Cannot be ridden on footpaths
- Can be ridden on shared pathways, bike lanes and local roads with a speed limit of 50kmh or less
- Riders must wear helmets.
We expect trials to commence in Q4 after each city appoints rental operators for the trials. Some operators may have a mix of ebikes, given their increased popularity. We hope there is some coordination between the three urban cities to enable journeys across and between their cities.
The last remaining scooter change in Victoria will be to allow privately owned scooters to be used under similar conditions. Despite being widely used already, they are illegal on public roads and paths — it’s rare to see regulation precede innovation. We expect private ownership laws to be reviewed and modified in mid-2022 when the existing 10kmh escooter regulation expires.
Victoria’s announcement leaves NSW as the only Australian State where eScooters are totally illegal for any form of public use — along with all other electric personal mobility devices.
