Perth Voice Interactive

THE e-scooter share craze is coming to Vincent, with a 12-month trial pegged to start in November or December.

Vincent council originally wanted to sign up to a five-way inner-city council e-scooter share trial but Perth council dove in early and started its own scheme early in March, before the other councils were ready.

The delay meant Perth got to be the guinea pig and this week Vincent councillors endorsed a tender for two companies to provide e-scooters, based on the scooter scheme’s smooth sailing in the city.

A report to councillors says “to date, the City of Perth have received no reports regarding major incidents” and there was “high demand” with 110,000 rides in the first four months of the trial.

Some locals were concerned the plan would exacerbate the existing e-scooter scourge they’re experiencing.

For a few months now residents living around Britannia Reserve have been petitioning council to act on the scooter scourge zooming through the park’s pathways and unnerving kids, dogs, and older folks with the risk of a crash.

Leederville resident Linda Harris told the council this week, “this is becoming quite dangerous because of the increasing number of speeding cyclists, e-scooters and skateboards.

“If Vincent adopts this trial of e-scooters I can only assume there will be more e-scooters in the suburb and they will naturally think Britannia Reserve is a great place to test out the scooters and ride as fast as humanly possible,” Ms Harris says, calling on the council for clear signage around the park to deter reckless riders.

Mayor Emma Cole said the scooters that were part of the trial ought have less of an impact than privately-owned scooters because they can limit the speeds of the hired ones.

Geofence

CEO David MacLennan said they could geofence them out of unwanted areas, using GPS to halt scooters from the no-go zones.

One councillor, Ron Alexander, voted against the scheme as he was opposed to more scooters being on footpaths, but the remainder were all a-go.

“I’m super excited about this one,” said Cr Ashley Wallace, a keen scooterer. “It was disappointing that we weren’t able to go in with the City of Perth when they undertook their e-scooter process, but I guess you could view that as a trial to our trial.

“My observations working in the city around the City of Perth’s trial is that the scooters are generally

used pretty respectfully,” but “pretty infrequently as well.”

by DAVID BELL