An e-scooter hire trial in Melbourne will grind to an abrupt halt after the city council voted to tear up contracts with companies running the scheme.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece and councillor Davydd Griffiths submitted a motion to halt agreements with operators Lime and Neuron Mobility amid complaints about reckless riders, injuries, double-dinking and accidents.
The meeting's original agenda was to consider measures that could improve trial outcomes, and the new motion had shocked some councillors including Rohan Leppert.
"I've been a councillor for 12 years, and last night was the first time in those 12 years that I was told by the press, before being told by any of my fellow councillors, what the motion before the council would be and what the result would be," Mr Leppert told the meeting on Tuesday.
The motion passed with a 6-4 majority.
Neuron and Lime's contracts with the city expire in April 2025, but the council has the power to end them with 30 days' notice.
Announcing the motion, Mr Reece noted he was a strong supporter of the scheme when it began two years ago.
"But I've got to say, after two years, I have run out of patience for what I've seen on the streets and for parts of our city, " Mr Reece told the meeting.
"We need a fundamental reset."
He said the ban would have no effect on bikes, and noted sometimes it took several attempts to launch new modes of transport in a city.
The meeting heard from scores of Melburnians including emergency physician Sarah Whitelaw, who told the meeting Royal Melbourne Hospital had recorded an "exponential increase" in e-scooter injuries since February 2022, around 20 to 30 per month.
"Our team calculated the cost to Royal Melbourne of e-scooter injuries in 2022 to be over $1.9 million."
Councillor Elizabeth Mary O'Sullivan-Myles did not support the motion, and said while a ban might be needed in future, there was still time to improve the scheme.
"it's important to remember that council cannot ban all e-scooters from the city," she said.
"We're only talking about the shared trial scheme. So the risk still remains."
Neuron general manager Jayden Bryan said his company had been working with the city on how to best regulate the e-scooter program.
"It is very odd that a tabled proposal for the introduction of new e-scooter technology can change to become a proposal for a ban in just one day," Mr Bryant said in a statement.
"We have been having in-depth discussions with the City of Melbourne team for weeks about how to best optimise the city's e-scooter program."
Hire e-scooters had boosted Melbourne's economy by about $300 million and had become a part of the city's transport mix since launching in 2022, Mr Bryant said.
Neuron's scooters have travelled more than 8.5 million kilometres and taken 4.7 million trips since 2022, but public e-scooters have spurred waves of complaints regarding public safety and blocked pathways.
The state government in July announced fines would increase for using e-scooters on footpaths, and new penalties for double-dinking and riding without a helmet.
A Lime spokesman told AAP the company invested more than $40 million in locally based operations and technology.
"Lime is committed to providing a safe and responsible shared e-scooter service in the City of Melbourne," he said.
He said in the absence of public e-scooters, riders would turn to unregulated, privately owned scooters that could be modified to travel at high speeds, giving up the ability to implement geofencing, slow zones and helmets.
"While we can appreciate the councillors are hearing from a very vocal minority, we’ll remain focused on continuing to improve our service and tackling concerns raised by local residents.”
