Media release
October 30, 2020
The emergence of new micro-mobility services, such as dockless electric scooters, have proved an inter-esting innovation within the transportation industry over recent years, with companies like Lime and Neu-ron Mobility pitching themselves as convenient and cost-effective mobility options for consumers. How-ever, the Taxi Council of Queensland (TCQ) is warning Local and State Governments that they need to take a more careful approach to these new technologies, and not only for the sake of protecting the safety of e-scooter users but for the wider community also.
While ‘e-scooters’ appear to have found something of a market fit in Brisbane and are now trying to do the same in Townsville, negative headlines about safety concerns continue to dominate. Overseas re-ports consistently show that e-scooter accidents not only can, but do happen and frequently result in seri-ous injuries requiring hospitalisation and sometimes result in death. They sound a warning bell for the Queensland Government and Local Councils that safety concerns about e-scooters are serious and they do not seem to be going away, especially while new developments in their technology tend to focus on making them bigger, go further and at faster speeds.
The death of a Lime Scooter user in Brisbane in May 2019 was the first serious event locally that high-lighted the risks e-scooters carry, when a 50-year-old man was allegedly found to be travelling well above the advised speed limit, resulting in a crash and head injuries that unfortunately proved fatal.
This incident saw Pedestrian Council of Australia Chairman, Harold Scruby, call for all e-scooters to be banned, along with the Queensland Ambulance Service issuing safety warnings to all riders following a spate of hospitalisations as a direct result of scooter accidents.
The Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council nevertheless permitted e-scooters to continue operation, presuming the community remained supportive of the technology, and still wanted access to the ‘fun’ and novel convenience it offered for getting short distances around the city.
The positives of easy scooting, however, also come with other downsides than user safety worries. For example, TCQ is particularly concerned that scooters are being left haphazardly on footpaths around city central business districts or simply abandoned and dumped in other public spaces.
“The haphazard discarding of scooters on Brisbane footpaths has become more than just a general nui-sance for pedestrians, it’s creating trip hazards for taxi passengers getting in and out of cabs, and poten-tially dangerous obstacles for people with sight impairment or using a wheelchair or mobility scooter. It’s time for some of the rights of e-scooter users to be reined in so that the rest of the community can enjoy their rights to unobstructed use of public footpaths,” says TCQ CEO, Blair Davies.
Countries such as New Zealand have seen legal damage payouts close to $14million to date as the result of dangerous scooter incidents, with France and Spain completely banning all forms of e-scooters,
emphasising an urgent need for all levels of government in Queensland to take the necessary precau-tions now to ensure e-scooters are safe for our communities.
“Urban CDBs are not the wild west and so leaving it up to e-scooter businesses to set their own safety standards is not an option. It is up to the State Government and City Councils to ensure micro-mobility scooters are properly regulated so they don’t put the community at risk or inconvenience. E-scooter users should be able to happily zip and scoot around town, but only if they can do so without causing harm or inconvenience to everyone else,” says Mr Davies.
ENDS