Wollongong City Council has marked the first anniversary of its shared e-scooter trial.
Since its launch, the e-scooters have clocked up more than 165,000 trips totalling nearly 317,000km – equivalent to almost eight trips around the globe.
The Council says it plans to continue the trial past its one-year anniversary to continue to learn about e-scooter use, riders’ preferred routes and the opportunities the shared scheme offers.
“We are finalising the finer details about this extension period to make sure it’s in line with the Transport for NSW E-scooter Shared Trial guidelines and NSW Legislation. We will share more information in late October,” it said in a statement.
Lord Mayor, Gordon Bradbery AM said that the past 12 months of the trial had come with many learnings.
“And the staggering positive is that our city has one of the highest usage rates in the state.”
“Wollongong is one of the first councils in NSW to test this ambitious shared e-scooter scheme. Sometimes it is not easy being the first, so we appreciate our community working with us,” Lord Mayor Bradbery said.
“To date, we’re making up half of the overall shared e-scooter usage in NSW, and on a weekly basis, we’re seeing an average of about 3,200 trips. If we look closer at this trial data, we see valuable insights into people’s travelling behaviours.”
The most popular Wollongong e-scooter routes have been:
- along the foreshore;
- lower Crown Street and Harbour Street;
- Smith Street cycleway;
- trips to and from Wollongong Train station along Burelli Street;
- There has also been a strong desire to ride between the University of Wollongong, North Wollongong train station and the CBD.
“It’s no surprise many trips are for recreational use along our beautiful coastline. But it’s also pleasing to see people using them to get to university, work and public transport. This shows us how they are fitting into community life and their effectiveness in supporting daily movements.”
Lord Mayor Bradbury said the trial had also focussed on areas for improvement to ensure its longevity and safety for everyone.
“From the start, we’ve been clear to say this is a live trial. This means that Council, Transport for NSW and our service providers Neuron, can make changes based on what our community are telling us,” he said.
“We’ve heard concerns around safety and riding behaviours, and we continue to work with NSW Police to tackle this matter. We’re also working with our providers to address concerns about where users are parking the e-scooters after trips, and have rolled out dedicated parking zones in key locations like Burelli Street, lower Crown Street, and foreshore areas including the Blue Mile.
“With this being said, we haven’t needed to make any major changes. So, we want to continue the trial to gain a bigger picture of how they’ll operate if it was to become long-term. The trial also helps NSW Government inform their policy on the future of shared e-scooters in NSW.
“I want to make it clear to our community that this is still very much a trial. Any decision to make the shared e-scooter scheme permanent will require community input as well as approval from the NSW Government.”
