Adelaide City Council's Lime 'E-Scooter' Trial Regulations - Reasonable or Ridiculous?

avgbowlofpho on 18/02/2019 - 16:46
Last edited 18/02/2019 - 16:57 by 1 other user

Find the trial article on the Adelaide City Council site

Adelaide has finally jumped on board the e-scooter wagon and allowed Lime to trial them in the city; with it, like most things are regulations.

Riders:

Must be at least 18 years old
Must wear an approved bike helmet that is securely fitted
May ride on footpaths and shared paths unless otherwise prohibited
May ride on a road only when crossing or to avoid an obstruction for up to 50m. If road travel is required, riders:
Must travel less than 50m along the road to avoid the obstruction;
Must keep as far to the left as possible; and
Must obey any traffic signals.
Must NOT ride on a road:
with a dividing line or median strip, or
where the speed limit is 50 km/h or more
which is one-way with more than 1 marked lane
if otherwise prohibited
Must not ride in a bike lane or bus lane
Must use a warning (e.g. bell, horn or verbal) to avert danger
Must have proper control at all times and ride with due care and reasonable consideration for other persons
Must use a flashing or steady white light at the front and a flashing red light and reflector at the back of the device when riding at night or in hazardous conditions
Must not exceed 15km/h or a lesser speed if required in the circumstances to stop safely to avert danger
Must not ride abreast
Must not carry passengers
Must not have a BAC (blood alcohol concentration) of 0.05 or more or the presence of THC (Cannabis), Methylamphetamine (Speed) or MDMA (Ecstasy) in their blood or oral saliva
Must not use a mobile phone whilst riding
Must not carry scooters on public transport.

Now there are reasonable regulations, and there are one's that are plain ridiculous and have fines too,

Example of offences that may apply* Expiation* Max Penalty
Riding at speed exceeding 15km/h $174 $2500
Failure to wear a helmet $104 $2500
Riding without due care or attention $104 $2500
Failure to maintain proper control $104 $2500
Carrying, being carried as, a passenger $104 $2500
Riding abreast of another scooter or skateboard $57 $2500
Failing to warn a pedestrian with a bell, horn or other warning device $57 $2500
Riding at night without lights $57 $2500
Riding on a road with a dividing line or >50km/h$57 $2500
Riding on a road with 2 or more marked lanes $379 $2500
Riding under age 18 $300 $2500

I personally think this under 18 rule is absolute bullcrap. I understand that they don't want young kids like 9-10 year olds riding these things, but this isn't even on the road. This is understandable if these were to be ridden on the road where you need to obey road rules; but this is just plain ridiculous.

Do you think this might change? Discuss.

Poll Options

• 21
  Reasonable
• 2
  Ridiculous
• 15
  Somewhere In Between

• 

  dcep on 18/02/2019 - 16:53

  +3

  May ride on footpaths and shared paths unless otherwise prohibited
  May ride on a road only when crossing or to avoid an obstruction for up to 50m. >If road travel is required, riders:
  Must travel less than 50m along the road to avoid the obstruction

  No, no kids.

  • 

    Spam Service on 19/02/2019 - 08:02

    +1

    'Must be 18' is a bit weird though. You can be on your P plates at 17 and drive a car, but can't ride an e-scooter at 15kph.

• 

  orangetrain on 18/02/2019 - 17:09

  +4

  How do I score a jackpot?

  It looks like I need to ride on scooter with two hands at speeds of 51km/h in a crowded CBD as a 17 year old 11 month while carrying a passenger. How much is this?

  • 

    avgbowlofpho on 18/02/2019 - 17:10

    +1

    not to mention, on the road and neither of you are wearing a helmet

    • 

      pegaxs on 18/02/2019 - 17:58

      +3

      All while drunk, high and doing it in the bus lane…

• 

  [Deactivated] on 18/02/2019 - 17:19

  'oral saliva', thank goodness,

• 

  bongom on 18/02/2019 - 17:35

  The age limit is probably due to Lime's legal liability?

  • 

    HighAndDry on 18/02/2019 - 17:39

    Doesn't really make sense - Lime can have this as part of their own conditions for use (and I'm sure they have many of these), without it being a council regulation.

    • 

      bongom on 19/02/2019 - 08:55

      Not practical for the Lime app to enforce the age requirement.
      Council will be worried about an irresponsible teen mowing down an elderly pedestrian.

      • 

        HighAndDry on 19/02/2019 - 08:56

        That teen can fully ride a bicycle though, and still mow down people.

• 

  HighAndDry on 18/02/2019 - 17:36

  Yeah I agree, the issues I have would be:

  Must be at least 18 years old

  Kids far younger than this are allowed to ride bicycles;

  and

  Must not exceed 15km/h

  Almost all bicycles will go faster than this already.

• 

  pegaxs on 18/02/2019 - 17:56

  Just sounds like reasonable and commonsense things. There is no way those fines of $2,500 are ever going to be enforced.

  The only thing I would see is speed and age limits relaxed. Can go faster on a bicycle and be younger. Maybe 16 years old for minimum age limit. And speed limit should be variable. If using around other people, pedestrians, other cyclists etc, sure, slow it down. If you are on a cycle way and there is no one around, 15km/h would see slow.

  • 

    CMH on 18/02/2019 - 19:49

    Fully agree we need speed and age limits relaxed.

    15kmh is ridiculously slow, even 20 is very slow. In Europe they have much higher limits.

    And I agree that 16 years they should be responsible enough. As it is, it's the age they get to drive a vehicle (with supervision).

    Perhaps put a 15kmh limit in pedestrian heavy areas (CBD or near schools etc).

• 

  aboabo on 18/02/2019 - 18:08

  A person with one arm is allowed to ride a bicycle. What about scooters?

• 

  Diji1 on 18/02/2019 - 18:20

  +5

  I personally think this under 18 rule is absolute bullcrap

  Children are morons despite what their parents say. I don't want to share the footpath with morons riding electric vehicles.

  • 

    sa5ha on 18/02/2019 - 20:50

    +1

    As a parent, I wholeheartedly agree with this comment.

  • 

    avgbowlofpho on 18/02/2019 - 21:07

    There is already the 'riding with due care or attention' regulation, not to say that kids should be fined (if they are even allowed to be?). A large demographic of these scooter users would probably be within the 16-21 age gap since it's a 'trend', so I don't think the 18+ rule should be enforced.

• 

  mskeggs on 18/02/2019 - 18:57

  +2

  Aren’t these rules for the trial?
  Is it better to be precautionary, and relax rules later, or to have higher risk and need to introduce extra regulation?
  Considering the current rules completely ban the scooters in public, the trial looks like a good step.

  • 

    avgbowlofpho on 18/02/2019 - 21:03

    this is rules for the trial, but it seems it might even be enforced for all e-scooters if and when they do legalise it

• 

  elgrande on 18/02/2019 - 19:47

  +2

  You can drive a car on the road before you can ride a lime.. interesting.

  • 

    mskeggs on 18/02/2019 - 21:06

    +1

    Hard to have a supervising driver on the back of a scooter.

• 

  Nice one baby on 18/02/2019 - 23:46

  I don't think this Lime trial is a lemon.

• 

  tanksinatra on 19/02/2019 - 07:32

  +1

  Honestly the rules aren't that bad. Stick to the foot path, wear a helmet and don't go faster than running speed.

  Yeah it's annoying but bear in mind this is a new style of unlicensed vehicle and you are lucky to be able to trial it.
  I wish we had this in NSW.

• 

  jason101 on 19/02/2019 - 07:53

  You have to keep this in context, a couple of years ago pedaling your bicycle on the footpath was illegal in Adelaide. Adelaide councils have come a long way, but still have a long way to go.

• 

  twocsies on 13/03/2019 - 10:34

  It can save people a lot of time. For example, I see people who work near Halifax Street and can then scoot up Pulteney to North Terrace. Google Maps says this is an 18 minute walk, or it's a 6 minute walk plus ten minutes on public transport (hopefully it's on time and not overcrowded, or you're late for your meeting). The same trip is just seven minutes by bicycle (probably the same for electric scooter). For occasional trips across the city that don't coincide with the buses and trams, electric scooter hire is a good option.

  Bicycles can't be taken on public transport, but a folding scooter can be. If they are legal for hire, private scooters should be legal as well.