High-powered electric scooters are set to appear on the streets of Melbourne and Ballarat as part of a 12-month state government trial.  

The e-scooters for hire will be allowed on bicycle lanes, shared paths and low-speed roads (up to 50kph). They will not be permitted on footpaths. 

They can travel up to 20kph, which is twice the legal speed capabilities of privately owned e-scooters in Victoria. 

Currently in Victoria electric scooters can legally travel on low-speed roads, shared off-road paths and footpaths only if they have a maximum speed of 10kph and a power output of less than 200 watts.

Minister for Public Transport Ben Carroll said e-scooters were an emerging technology and more work was needed to understand how they could be used in Victoria. 

"We are partnering with local councils that have a good mix of low-speed roads, shared user paths and bicycle lanes to trial how e-scooters may fit into our transport network," Mr Carroll said.

Something different

In Ballarat, the only regional city chosen for the trial, Mayor Daniel Moloney said the council was keen to demonstrate the city was a place "not afraid to try something a bit different".

Cr Moloney said while he did not expect e-scooters to be used by people travelling from the suburbs into central Ballarat, he saw them as a great way for people to travel around the CBD.

"When you're in the CBD itself, it does make a lot more sense to park the car and then … use other forms of transport such as scooters, walking and cycling," he said. 

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Cr Moloney said he expected some criticisms of the plan, which he likened to discussions around bike paths.

"The thing is, it's not intended for them — stay in your car, that's fine, but it doesn't mean that we can't provide a range of different options that will work for different people."

Cr Moloney said he did not have safety concerns based on the experiences of other places around the world to trial e-scooters.

But recently released data had shown hundreds of people have been injured while riding e-scooters around Brisbane. 

Brisbane, along with Adelaide, and Darwin have all had e-scooters zooming through their streets long before the Victorian government announced its plans for an e-scooter trial.

While Cr Moloney said he believed there would be some challenges, such as e-scooters being dumped in inappropriate places, working with a good provider would ensure any issues were quickly resolved.

The e-scooter companies participating in the trial have not yet been announced and a state government spokesperson said the four councils would partner with their preferred providers. 

'Supporting connectivity'

Memories are still fresh from Melbourne's oBike fiasco which saw yellow bicycles up trees and abandoned in rivers across the city.  

City of Yarra, which has started its own e-bike trial, was seeing very low instances of dumping and vandalism due to the quality of both the bikes and the operator, a council spokesperson said.

Mayor of Yarra Cr Gabrielle de Vietri said she looked forward to working with the state government and other councils on the e-scooter trial.

"We're particularly interested in how e-scooters can support connectivity to existing transport systems such as our train and tram network and be used for short, local trips in and around our municipality," Cr de Vietri said.

She said e-scooters would help drive car dependency and reduce carbon emissions.