Concerns about injuries and dangerous behaviour prompted Melbourne to join cities like Paris, Rome and Toronto in banning or winding back e-scooter networks earlier this month. 

In Canberra, almost four years after e-scooters were first introduced in the nation's capital, police say the "majority" of riders are doing the right thing.

However, police do have "concerns" about some rider behaviour, as infringement data and anecdotal evidence from Canberra's streets show not everyone is obeying the rules.

'We do some naughty stuff from time to time'

A regular e-scooter rider, 18-year-old Ruby, who the ABC has given a pseudonym on request, said using e-scooters to get around was "really helpful".

She said she and her friends would occasionally "do some naughty stuff [on e-scooters] from time to time" and believed they could be more heavily policed. 

"I've seen many people get injured because they're not riding safely," she said.

"Like they don't have their helmets on or anything, they're not following the safety rules and stuff."

Ms Gyeltshen said she had also hurt herself, although not badly, riding an e-scooter one Friday night.

"It was just a little scratch on the knee."

E-scooters rolled out across Canberra

The ACT first introduced e-scooters in 2020 when two operators, Neuron and Beam, were allowed to put 750 e-scooters each into the CBD and Parliamentary Triangle. 

Since then, the operators estimate they have each seen 1.9 million rides on their scooters, and the scheme has been rolled out across Belconnen, Gungahlin, Woden Valley, Weston Creek, Molonglo and Tuggeranong.

There are now almost 2,000 e-scooters available for hire across the ACT, with operators paying $1 a day in central Canberra and 50 cents a day in outer Canberra. 

But this week, that number was brought into question.

The Weekend Australian reported that Beam had "deliberately" exceeded the scooter cap in several of their locations, including Canberra, and were not paying the required registration fees on each vehicle.

In a statement, Beam Mobility CEO Alan Jiang said he was "deeply apologetic" for any "instances where we have exceeded the vehicle allocation".

"We emphatically reject any suggestion that this was a 'scheme' to deprive councils of revenue," he said.

"In response, we are committed to a full and thorough revision of our processes to ensure this does not happen again."

The ACT government confirmed on Saturday it had received "information alleging unethical behaviour" by one of its public shared e-scooter providers. 

"The ACT government is currently investigating these claims and liaising with other councils and the operator," a spokesperson told the ABC.

How many people injure themselves on e-scooters?

A persistent concern since the introduction of these e-scooters has been the likelihood of of injury.

But official figures on how many people injure themselves on an e-scooter are hard to come by. 

Canberra Hospital doesn't have figures on how many people present to the ACT's emergency departments after an incident involving an e-scooter. 

A spokesperson for Canberra Health Services says that's because neither walk-in centres nor emergency departments code injuries by the "mechanism of injury". 

One e-scooter fatality was recorded in the ACT when a young woman, who was not wearing a helmet, collided with a station wagon in Kambah when riding her privately-owned e-scooter in 2022. 

E-scooter infringements falling

Meanwhile, data from ACT Policing shows the number of infringements which have been issued has fallen substantially since 2021.

To date in 2024, 17 infringements have been issued, mostly for not wearing a helmet and riding with another person. Four cautions have been issued. 

In comparison, police issued 127 infringements in 2021, mostly for failing to wear a helmet.

In total, police have issued 230 infringement notices and 80 cautions since the e-scooters were introduced in 2020. 

ACT Road Policing Superintendent Brian Diplock said he wanted to acknowledge that although most riders were doing the right thing, "there [was] a small number who don't".

He said some behaviour was of concern to police.

“Using a mobile phone while on an e-scooter could cost you over $500. Given how easy it is to pull the devices over and answer the call, it’s just not worth it," he explained.

“Essentially, they’re not afforded the same protections as riders in other vehicles, so if they’re involved in a collision they’re more likely to be injured – which is something that unfortunately police do see when we attend scenes of e-scooter collisions."

Superintendent Diplock said it was difficult to say whether the lower number of infringement notices relating to e-scooters in the last 18 months was due to police no longer prioritising the offences, Canberrans getting used to the rules around e-scooter use, or a combination of the two.

He said alcohol and its effect on e-scooter riders was also hard to measure as people on scooters were not subject to "prescribed concentration of alcohol testing".

ACT Policing does have the power to issue fines of up to $3,200 for people caught driving under the influence on an e-scooter, as it can with other devices like bicycles.

But that relies on someone being observed to be potentially affected by alcohol in the first place. 

And ACT Policing didn't have any data about how many of these fines had been issued to e-scooter riders.

Government 'committed' to data release and safety

When asked about this lack of data, a spokesperson for the ACT government said it was "committed" to releasing more road safety data, along with other states and territories and the federal government. 

The government said researchers at the University of Canberra had also been funded to undertake a project to investigate e-scooter behaviours in the ACT "via observation".

That project was expected to identify strategies to promote safe riding to inform future safety campaigns, the spokesperson confirmed. 

Superintendent Diplock said his message to Canberrans getting on an e-scooter was clear.

“The speed limits for e-scooters are 25 kilometres [per hour] if you’re on a shared path, or if you’re on a footpath 15 kilometres an hour.”

Editor's note 25/08/2024: This article has been amended from the original version to give the e-scooter user a pseudonym as requested.