A new Parliamentary push to legalise electric scooters and bikes on NSW roads is in motion. But not everyone is on board, as deadly crashes, fire risks and pedestrian prangs skyrocket. Catherine Lewis reports.
Once seen as a teen school-run dream, electric scooters have evolved into one of the fastest growing modes of transport, with commuters dodging congestion and the perils of public transport, while tourists nip around new cities ticking the eco box. It all seems too good to be true – a low-cost, convenient and environmentally conscious way to leave the gas-guzzler in the garage. Almost 1.4 million owners in NSW agree with demand growing annually by 10%, says the University of NSW, and a global worth of more than $49 billion. But doubters say the wheels are about to fall off, as accidents soar and the devices are named the leading cause of fires in the state.
Although readily available to buy, the 460,000 personal e-scooters in NSW are restricted to private property and remain ‘illegal on NSW roads and road-related areas, including footpaths, shared paths and bicycle lanes,’ confirms Transport for NSW. The State Government’s new e-micromobility action plan aims to address this ‘regulatory blind spot.’ Following in the footsteps of South Australia, shortly set to legalise the devices following community consultations in which 87% gave the green light, NSW’s plan will ‘help people realise the benefits of increased e-micromobility use, making train stations, jobs, services and retail precincts easier to access,’ says Minister for Transport Jo Haylen.
The plan’s 58 action points include a required rider age of 16, mandatory helmets and allowing e-scooters to be ridden on shared paths, with riders giving way to pedestrians. “Only 22% of people across the state know it’s illegal to ride e-scooters on our roads and streets,” adds Minister Haylen. “It’s clear we need a regulatory framework that will allow people to make the most of this transport option, without compromising on community safety.”
It is this focus that sparked more than 400 submissions to NSW Parliament’s recent ‘Use of e-scooters, e-bikes and related mobility options’ inquiry. It aims to examine government’s role in enabling and encouraging safe electrified transport and improving the regulatory framework to ensure safer outcomes. On the car-dependent Northern Beaches, parking concerns abound, so community support is strong for alternatives, but reckless riding and scooters strewn on footpaths is leaving locals split.
Lithium-ion batteries are now the fastest growing fire risk, says FRNSW
“The Beaches faces growing transport challenges with an increasingly congested road network limiting opportunities for growth in housing and local jobs,” Northern Beaches Council said in a submission to the inquiry. “E-devices provide an opportunity to shift this culture of car-dependency and uptake is strong, particularly among our teenagers, but there are safety concerns for both pedestrians and riders due to the speed, size and quietness.”
Harold Scruby at the e-mobility inquiry
Council called for ‘clear, unambiguous legislation’ to enable police enforcement, as well as a long-term focus on rolling out separated infrastructure. “We strongly advocate for cleaner forms of transport, but we don’t want it to be a matter of not ‘if,’ but ‘when’ someone will get seriously injured or worse,” Mayor Sue Heins tells Peninsula Living Pittwater. Council was the first in NSW to launch an e-bike safety campaign in May, 2024. This was following an ‘e-bike blitz’ by local police which showed that between March 2023 to 2024, there were 244 punishable offences between Manly and Palm Beach, including unregulated use and speeds of more than 40km/hr, something Beaches-based Shadow Minister for Transport, Natalie Ward, calls a ‘tragedy waiting to happen.’ Ms Ward is on the Parliamentary inquiry committee.
Opinion is also split on share schemes, with the rainbow of hire scooters a spiky urban planning problem. Take Melbourne, where the city council has banned share scooters following endless complaints and a $2 million hospital bill, including seven deaths across the state. The City of Sydney, citing ‘clutter’ on footpaths and ‘road safety,’ has declined to climb aboard at all, despite other trials taking place in NSW to much fanfare.
Harold Scruby from the Pedestrian Council of Australia says the reality is less fanfare and more failure, with zero meaningful enforcement and just two e-scooter penalty notices issued in two years. “You can’t have a trial without enforcement,” he tells Peninsula Living Pittwater. “Councils must be required to have written confirmation from NSW Police that they have the time, inclination and resources to enforce e-scooters before any trial can begin. We demand the right to walk on footpaths without the threat of motor vehicles behind us all the time.”
Private e-scooter owners also remain reluctant to support shared schemes, out of fear that poor driving will cement suspicions. Warriewood-based *Dan, who e-scooters to his pharma workplace from the Valley View Estate, says he is fed up with irresponsible speed demons giving the ‘insanely convenient’ devices a bad name. “The vast majority of us are not hell on two wheels, but the ones that are ruin it for everyone.”
E-device injuries are a far cry from the scraped knee of the push-bike era, says the Australian Medical Association (AMA). While hire firm Beam claims that only one in 100,000 e-scooter trips result in an injury, in the last two years alone, more than 500 e-device riders have headed for NSW hospitals, research from Sydney’s St Vincent’s found. In Queensland, hospitalisations have doubled, rising from 691 in 2021, to 1,273 last year, with AMA emergency medicine representative Sarah Whitelaw saying, “E-bike and e-scooter injuries are different… and require months and months of rehab.”
Westmead Children’s Hospital trauma specialist Soundappan Sannappa Venkatraman told the Parliamentary inquiry that the number of children presenting with e-device injuries such as brain bleeds saw a ‘very sharp increase’ in 2024. Couple this with Vision Australia’s findings that 82% of their blind or partially-sighted community no longer feel safe out walking. “They can get up to 50km/h and even stationary, they become an obstacle,” says Chris Edwards, Vision Australia director of government relations and advocacy. “Imagine how frightening it is knowing this could knock you over at any time.”
It’s not just fears from the footpath that are slighting this sector. E-bikes have been named the ‘fastest growing fire risk’ in the state by Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW), with 185 fires linked to lithium-ion batteries – most often in small, portable devices like e-bikes and e-scooters – in the first seven months of last year. This was a 13.5% rise from 2023. While the energy- dense batteries of e-bikes are sustainable and last longer, this comes at a cost. They contain highly flammable electrolytes and, if they fail – due to overcharging, extreme temperatures, ageing or cell defects – it can lead to thermal runaway, resulting in intense, tough-to-extinguish fires.
Last year in Narraweena, a charging e-scooter ignited, burning down a Ronald Avenue house, leaving two people hospitalised. “The nature of lithium-ion battery fires is extremely volatile,” says FRNSW duty commander, Inspector Steven Perkins. “When these devices fail, they tend to do so extremely quickly and with great intensity,” he adds, advising owners to buy smart, store devices outside and unplug them once charged. New product safety standards are soon to roll out, requiring devices to tick testing and certification boxes, with fines of up to $825,000 hitting retailers, manufacturers and suppliers who fail to comply – essential to ‘empower consumers to make informed decisions,’ says NSW Fair Trading commissioner, Natasha Mann.
The positives to eco-urban micromobility cannot be denied as we ride into an ever-more congested future. With transport contributing 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, the more that take to two-wheels the better, but consistent regulation to prioritise safety remains lacking. Stricter enforcement of rules, user education and accountability via licensing and registration, plus ensuring manufacturers are on board from the start, are crucial to making this wheely new world work. So much potential, but not at any cost.
Additional reporting by Aoife Moynihan
*Dan did not want his full name used
