New penalties will be introduced for people who use e-scooters and other vehicles while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

“As new forms of transport like e-scooters grow in popularity, we want to ensure everyone uses them safely – to protect the riders and others who use our roads and paths,” said Chris Steel, ACT Minister for Transport and City Services.

“These new laws will address a gap in our current drug and alcohol legislation, targeting unsafe drink riding on footpaths, shared paths, verges, and other road related spaces.”

The Road Transport Legislation Amendment Bill No. 2 introduces a new offence for riding a personal mobility device (such as an e-scooter or a bike) on road-related areas while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, to the extent they are incapable of proper control.

The new offence will apply a maximum court penalty of 20 penalty units. However, it will not carry any imprisonment term, or come with automatic licence disqualification requirements.

This builds on an existing and longstanding offence for riding a personal mobility device or bike under the influence of drugs and alcohol on ACT roads.

For consistency, the bill updates the offence and makes the penalty the same for driving a motor vehicle under the influence, which is 30 penalty units (rather than 50 penalty units).

“Reviewing the ACT’s legislative framework to promote safety on paths was a recommendation of the recent independent review into the shared e-scooter scheme,” Mr Steel said.

“The Government is acting on the review’s recommendations ahead of pursuing a city-wide rollout of the shared e-scooter scheme in 2022.”

These new penalties follow legislation introduced by the Government earlier this year that will empower police to direct a person to get off, or not get on, a personal mobility device.

Together, these changes aim to create a hierarchy of enforcement options for police to use in addressing unsafe riding behaviour.

“These new offences make it clear that it’s not acceptable to have a night of heavy drinking, jump on a scooter, and risk your own safety and that of others,” Mr Steel said.

The Bill also prohibits drivers of non-electric vehicles from parking in areas designated for electric vehicle charging, to support the uptake and use of zero emissions vehicles. It requires owners of vehicles garaged in the ACT for three months to transfer the registration to the ACT. This would ensures all vehicles are covered by the right registration and insurance arrangements.

The bill will be debated in 2022, along with the government’s earlier tranche of road safety legislation amendments.