Hire e-scooters are now scooting off out of the CBD, following the Melbourne City Council’s resolution to ban them at a meeting last month.
The rental operators need to remove the scooters from the CBD by midnight on 24 September, or face fines.
Social media users have noted the two companies – Lime and Neuron – have been busy rounding up the scooters from the city and removing them ahead of the ban.
The Guardian reports that around 1500 e-scooters have been loaded one-by-one onto trucks and taken from the city. The publication also says that rental e-scooters that aren’t removed will be impounded, and the rental operators will have to pay release fees for each scooter held by the City of Melbourne.
The e-scooters were extremely contentious and divisive. For many, they offered a convenient and eco-friendly alternative to cars. However, issues with users riding on footpaths, parking scooters irresponsibly, and accidents involving pedestrians saw them loathed by many other Melburnians. Despite efforts to regulate their use, including limiting speeds and geofencing certain areas, the challenges persisted.
The rental e-scooter ban apples to the CBD and suburbs including Docklands, Carlton, Southbank, South Yarra, Flemington, Kensington, Port Melbourne, Parkville and East Melbourne.
Privately owned e-scooters can still be ridden within the City of Melbourne. The City of Yarra and City of Port Phillip e-scooter hire schemes will contribute to operate.
