As he climbs the hill near his home past one of Sydney’s largest police stations, Kareem Tawansi has historically made a show of pushing himself along with his back foot.
It is an achievement that deserves an academy award, as his e-scooter can reach a speed of approximately 20 kilometers per hour all on its own.
He is one of almost half a million people in NSW who legally own an e-scooter but cannot legally use it.
These e-scooter drivers, who glide along in suits and heels, whizzing through the furthest reaches of the city and bumping along country roads, are the slow misfits of the street – and it’s likely they’ll soon be legitimized.
Sydney-based e-scooter enthusiast Kareem Tawansi often rides around Surry Hills. (ABC News: Andrew Whitington)
This week, the NSW government unexpectedly announced plans to legalize e-scooters as part of its new e-micromobility action plan.
“Finally,” said Mr Tawansi, who was once spectacularly stopped by highway police in an unknown suburb.
He received two fines: one for using an unregistered vehicle and another for wearing the wrong type of helmet, which cost a whopping $1,046.
“It was ridiculous,” he said, and “only illegal because we didn’t do the work to figure out whether it should be legal or not.”
NSW Police data paints a confusing picture of what is currently considered legal.
Last year, a hundred people were fined for e-scootering on a sidewalk, and 88 people were also fined for e-scootering on the road.
Mr Tawansi does not consider his e-scooter more dangerous than anything else on the cycle path, where cyclists often fly by in a peloton.
“It’s fun, I know exactly how long it’s going to last, it has virtually no footprint,” he said.
While the rule change mainly affects private e-scooter users, it also paves the way for shared e-scooter providers such as Neuron and Beam to set up shop in Sydney.
The sharing arrangements are already entrenched in cities such as Canberra and Brisbane, and recently abolished in the city of Melbourne, and have been the subject of scrutiny, particularly in the area of safety.
Rented e-scooters in Canberra have become a popular transport option, but they are banned in the city of Melbourne. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
Would shared e-scooters work in Sydney?
While the state government handles regulations, shared e-scooter providers deal directly with local municipalities to barter for contracts and get their scooters on the streets.
The City of Sydney – which covers much of the CBD and inland – has already decided not to participate, citing “road safety” and “clutter” on footpaths.
The Inner West Council, which covers another large part of the city, recently rejected a proposal from the state government to trial e-scooters as an alternative transport option, while the Sydenham to Bankstown railway line is closed for upgrades.
Both councils will closely monitor the results of shared e-scooter trials in Kogarah, south of the CBD, following similar trials in Sydney Olympic Park, Lake Macquarie and Mount Annan Australian Botanical Garden in 2022.
A spokesperson for NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said shared schemes were “an important part of the mix” for people without their own e-mobility scooter or bike, and said the government would “encourage access to shared devices”, they it in view of a “series of security problems”.
An e-scooter trial is taking place in Kogarah, in southern Sydney. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
There is hope that a shared e-scooter program will provide a legitimate option for commuters trying to reach transportation hubs such as train stations, while also reducing emissions and reducing traffic.
“We’ve had all these wonderful public transport projects, like the Sydney Metro, but a few months after opening people start complaining about having to get to the station and not being able to park,” says Stephen Greaves of the University of Sydney. Institute for Transport and Logistics Studies said.
“It’s often a lot faster to get somewhere, especially in the city.
“This could be an option somewhere between walking and driving. It’s often more efficient to run,” he said.
In Canberra, public acceptance of the shared e-scooters has been rapid, with operators Neuron and Beam estimating they have each seen 1.9 million trips on their scooters since they were rolled out four years ago.
It’s a similar story in Brisbane, the first city in Australia to allow shared e-scooter operators, with companies previously reporting around 5,000 users per day in the CBD.
But in Melbourne, shared e-scooters never really had a chance because the Melbourne City Council, with six months left of a trial, was dropped on safety grounds.
Stephen Greaves on an e-scooter during a trial in Sydney. (Supplied: Stephen Greaves)
Professor Greaves said it would be surprising if shared e-scooter operators did not try to take advantage of the legalization of e-scooters in NSW and focus on Sydney.
“It is the largest state, has the largest population and potentially produces the largest profits,” he said.
Research shows that the majority of Sydney residents support the legalization of e-scooters, provided there are some sensible rules in place, such as the requirement to wear a helmet.
According to the data, views on e-scooters generally worsen as the person ages.
As the number of e-scooters increases, so do safety concerns
Some private e-scooter users are hesitant to support a shared e-scooter program, fearing that bad behavior will further reinforce the already wary view of e-scooters as hell on two wheels.
“I completely understand that if you were someone walking down the street and a child flew past you at a very dangerous speed, that would not only be frustrating, but dangerous,” Mr Tawansi said.
“If they negatively impact the use of private scooters, I don’t want to see them.”
An emergency doctor in Melbourne said he was seeing between 30 and 40 patents every month due to e-scooter incidents while the city’s shared e-scooter trial was underway.
Seven people have been killed in e-scooter incidents in Victoria since 2021.
Thousands of violations have also been committed, mainly for not wearing a helmet, riding on a footpath or carrying a passenger.
Thousands of people across the country have been injured in e-scooter incidents. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
In Brisbane, reports of related injuries in emergency departments have almost doubled within two years.
The Queensland government is working to introduce random breath tests for motorcyclists, but says current methods of checking if someone is drunk – including an online questionnaire – are insufficient.
It’s one of many changes that municipalities and states will have to make in their efforts to make e-scooters safer.
Professor Greaves said with so many people in NSW already using them, it made sense for the state government to also ask these questions.