Hobart’s e-scooters won’t be going anywhere anytime soon after the City of Hobart voted to continue with the popular hire-and-ride services following a successful 1-year-plus long trial.
Set to operate under a new license arrangement with ‘strict conditions’ for operators, the vote was passed with amendments that will see future e-scooter license fees invested into shared on-street parking stations and transit lanes for bicycles, e-bikes and e-scooters.
The trial period has proven to be a huge success, with data from approximately 741,185 kilometres worth of e-scooter trips showing that more than half of the 604,516 rides taken on e-scooters during the trial period replaced car travel.
Data also showed Saturday as the most popular day of the week for e-scooter rides, followed by Friday and Sunday – with many of the weekday trips taken between 6am and 9am.
The City experienced low incident rates during the trial period, with only 1 minor incident requiring medical intervention per 22,000 rides and 1 serious incident requiring hospitalisation per 140,000 rides.
The report suggests that safety outcomes have improved over time, thanks to skill level, education, enforcement and familiarity.
The current trial arrangements will remain in place until June 2023, giving the City ample time to develop new service arrangements for hire-and-ride operators.
