Canberrans are embracing the micro-mobility of e-scooters with the popular vehicles attracting more than 4,000 trips per day.
Responding to Transport Canberra’s six-month review of the scheme, the Minister for Transport, Chris Steel said the strong uptake of both Neuron and Beam e-scooters highlighted that Canberrans were looking for new and different ways to get around their city.
“Since the share scheme commenced in September last year, e-scooters have proven an incredibly popular way for Canberrans to make short journeys linking to workplaces, tourist destinations, social activities and public transport,” Mr Steel said.
“About 75 per cent of trips are short ones of between one and two kilometres, suggesting many Canberrans are adding e-scooters to other types of travel for ‘last mile’ mobility,” he said.
“This is a great option which can help make it easier and more convenient to choose public transport over a car, for example.”
Mr Steel said Saturdays were the most popular days for e-scooter use, with Canberrans logging two to three times as many trips as they did on Mondays.
He said the single-day record for rides to date was Saturday 21 November, when passengers clocked up 9,325 trips.
He said a six-month review of the shared e-scooter scheme was being undertaken by the Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate with a view to improve safety, regulation and integration with the transport network.
“E-scooters are still a relatively new addition to Canberra’s transport mix, and there’s more we need to understand about where and how they are contributing to helping people get around our city,” Mr Steel said.
“The review will also consider licensed areas of operation, which is currently limited to Belconnen, the City, Inner North and Inner South, and if and how the scheme should be expanded going forward.”
Mr Steel said that as part of the review the Directorate had launched a survey, open until 23 April, to gauge community sentiment toward the e-scooters.
The Directorate’s e-scooter survey can be accessed on the Territory’s online insights panel website at this PS News link.
