Rental e-scooters will be banned from Melbourne's CBD after the council voted to scrap contracts with the scheme's two operators, Lime and Neuron. Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece says he is ‘fed up’ with rule-breakers posing a safety hazard to the city streets.
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00:00These for hire scooters behind me will soon become a thing of the past here in Melbourne
00:07after the City Council voted six councillors to four to scrap the contract with the share
00:13hire operators Neuron and Lime.
00:16And we've heard from Lord Mayor Nicholas Rees.
00:18He says that even though he was originally a supporter of the hire e-scooter trial when
00:24it was first introduced back in 2022, he has, like many residents and traders, become
00:30completely fed up with rule breakers who pose a safety hazard to pedestrians and also litter
00:37the CBD streets with abandoned e-scooters after they've completely finished their journey.
00:43This is what he had to say about last night's decision.
00:47This was an opportunity to end the havoc on Melbourne's footpaths and make our city safe
00:52again.
00:53He says that he moved this motion in Council last night because it had become completely
00:59shameful just how dangerous these e-scooters were on the city streets and also on footpaths
01:05with many people riding double dink, also riding without helmets and also weaving in
01:12and out of pedestrians on the footpaths.
01:15And this Council heard from the Head of Emergency at the Royal Melbourne Hospital who gave a
01:21submission that up to 40 people were presenting at hospital every month as a result of e-scooter
01:27crashes and more than 50% of those had head injuries with an estimated cost of up to $2
01:34million in health care costs.
01:37Now these two operators have 30 days to remove them and Nicholas Rees was asked whether or
01:44not there could be potential legal action.
01:46He says that the contract is very clear.
01:49It's there in black and white, that Council can decide to reject these contracts at any
01:55time with simply 30 days' notice and also that there is a very sensible shared bike
02:02scheme that has far fewer consequences in terms of safety than the e-scooters have posed.
02:09But it comes just three weeks after the Victorian Government decided to make e-scooters legal
02:16and Nicholas Rees was actually standing alongside the Minister when that decision was made.
02:21However that does mean though that we will be seeing private e-scooters still on the
02:27city streets and also they'll be continuing to be operated in other municipalities where
02:34these shared hire operations continue like the City of Yarra and also the City of Port
02:40Phillip which is the St Kilda Beach area, also the regional city of Ballarat.