Canberrans can now ride e-scooters directly from Belconnen to Civic and back. The two e-scooter shared zones have been connected over Bruce Ridge, using the Belconnen Bikeway, announced Chris Steel, ACT Minister for Transport and City Services.
Many e-scooter riders had tried to travel between the two zones, even though there was no link, vehicle providers discovered; a virtual ‘geofence’ blocked their way.
“The government will now provide a safe, accessible connection that keeps the scooters off major arterial roads, and ensures they’re on a safe shared path with cyclists,” Mr Steel said.
The e-scooter scheme has also expanded to Bruce, providing access to the CIT, Calvary Hospital, and GIO Stadium, he announced.
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However, the hospital will be a slow zone, as will the stadium (during major events), where e-scooters cannot go above 15 km/h, while retirement villages and schools would be no-go zones.
The number of e-scooters will increase by 400 – 200 each in Belconnen and Civic – “to make sure they don’t all migrate to the city,” Mr Steel said. Currently, there are 1,500 e-scooters in Canberra as part of the shared mobility scheme; this will expand to 1,900.
Large batches of scooters will be available at 18 key destination points in Belconnen.
By the end of the year, Mr Steel said, the e-scooter shared scheme would be rolled out to the rest of Canberra, starting with Woden and Gungahlin, and the number of e-scooters will further increase.
“Shared e-scooters are proving to be great for short trips, as well as longer commutes when combined with public transport,” he said.
They would also be “a new form of mobility” during the disruption caused by the light rail expansion to Woden, Mr Steel suggested.
“We don’t expect the people in Tuggeranong will take an e-scooter right the way through to the city,” he said. “Some people might on a recreational trip and that would be great to see; we will provide those connections to enable them to do that. But we expect people to take local trips, around a kilometre potentially, to their local shopping centre or town centre, and connect with other forms of mobility like public transport to enable them to make an efficient trip into the city.”
The government will keep the pilot model’s charge of $1 per e-scooter per day, which covers the administrative costs of the scheme and minor infrastructure improvements.
Last month, the ACT Government passed laws requiring e-scooter riders to control their device at all times and ride responsibly. This week, the Legislative Assembly will debate legislation to introduce drink driving laws for road-related areas, including footpaths and shared paths, to prohibit people riding scooters or bikes while intoxicated.
“I have personally seen, unfortunately, a number of people using the e-scooters outside nightclubs on a Friday night or Saturday night, drinking with their friends, two people on the scooter at once, no helmet, under the influence of drugs,” Mr Steel said.
“That’s why we’re tightening up the legislation to prohibit those types of activities off-road on footpaths and sidewalks, but also working with e-scooter providers on improvements to the geofencing, so that we can stop that sort of anti-social behaviour around particular key hotspots in the City.”
