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lime scooter share
Electric scooter share scheme trials in Australia

Electric scooters are expected to be whizzing around the streets this summer as part of a scooter share trial in Australia.

US company Lime have been promoting their dockless scooter share scheme this week, and are currently in discussions with Melbourne and Sydney city councils regarding implementation and impact.

While similar ride-sharing operators such as Obike found it difficult to get a warm welcome by the general public, Lime are determined to learn from this and mend the reputation of ride-share in Australia.

"Coming in to the market after previous operators, we really want to educate the public on how to participate in the share economy" said Community Affairs Manager William Peters on ABC radio program PM.

"Coming in to Sydney and Melbourne we've been very transparent with all our councils. We give them a data-sharing portal where they can track all their scooters and see the impact they're having on their local communities."

Lime also plan to collect every scooter from the streets every night after 9pm and redeploy the next day.

Though similar scooter-share schemes have been widely popular across Europe, Israel and the United States, it does raise a lot of questions in Australia.

How will dockless scooters fit into Australian cities?

In the ABC Radio report, Elliot Fishman, Director, Institute for Sensible Transport stated his concerns about the current infrastructure in Australian cities.

"There are a number of good opportunities that can come from this, but there are also some potential risks."

Mr Fishman called for the government to get on the front foot of issues including the lack of a connected, coherent bicycle infrastructure network in our cities, which he sees as ideally where these scooters would travel. He added that without the appropriate infrastructure there is significant risk of injuries occurring. 

"There are things that we know about how to design cities to minimize these risks that we need to start doing, that includes reduction in speed limits and protected bicycle infrastructure."

Bicycle Network has been supportive of dockless share bikes in Australian cities and believe they give more people easy access to healthy and sustainable transport. Bicycle Network will keenly monitor the introduction of similar scooter systems that support varied and integrated transport systems.

LISTEN: click here to listen to the full report on ABC Radio's PM program

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