E-scooter review kicks off amid safety concerns
A long-awaited review into South Australia’s e-scooter and e-bike laws has launched today, following a rise in mobility device incidents.
The state government has launched the ‘Review of Personal Mobility Devices’ public survey on YourSAy today, aimed at improving “fit-for-purpose” laws around the use of e-bikes, e-scooters and other personal mobility devices.
The South Australian community will be given the opportunity to express views on a range of considerations, including safety improvements, licensing requirements for riders, minimum rider age requirements, riding locations and speed limits.
Riders aged 16 and above have been able to use e-scooters and other personal mobility devices legally on footpaths, bike paths and roads since July 13 of last year.
Current e-scooter laws only permit a maximum speed limit of 10 kilometres per hour on shared footpaths and a maximum of 25 kilometres per hour on roads. They can only be ridden on roads with a speed limit of 50km/h.
Transport Minister Joe Szakacs said personal mobility devices would be “here to stay” but wanted community feedback on rules that were not working.
You might like
“We’ve been upfront since day one that we would review these laws after the first year – and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Szakacs said.
“Personal mobility devices and e-bikes are active transport options that are here to stay, which is why it’s important that we ensure the laws governing their use remain fit-for-purpose.
“We want to hear directly from South Australians about what’s working, what’s not, and where we can improve.”
The review follows serious accidents earlier this month involving personal mobility devices, with a 15-year-old girl from Nairne sustaining a fractured skull and an 18-year-old Adelaide man breaking a leg in another incident.
Stay informed, daily
In May, SA Police recorded 39 e-scooter-related injuries, including five that were considered serious injuries, following a crackdown on reckless riding and non-compliance with road rules.
It was an increase from SAPOL’s first operation in December 2025, where police recorded 16 people involved in collisions while riding e-scooters or e-bikes, 13 of whom were injured and four who sustained serious injuries.
Nine of the collisions involved e-scooters, six involved e-bikes, and one involved a solo-wheel device, with most occurring within metropolitan Adelaide.
A 2025 study from Adelaide University found that 35 per cent of all e-scooter riders observed in the CBD were not wearing a helmet while riding, while 54 per cent of those riding hire e-scooters failed to wear helmets.
Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith had previously described e-scooters being used on city footpaths as a “real health hazard and insurance problem”.
“I don’t think there is any place for wheeled, powered vehicles on the footpath mixed with pedestrians,” she said in 2023.
In 2024, there were over 543,000 e-scooter trips that started in the City of Adelaide, and a total of 73 incidents were reported between both e-scooter fleet operators, Beam and Neuron.
Szakacs said the government would be “open to change” personal mobility device rules to make sure they “work for everyone”.
“E‑scooters and e-bikes are becoming a more common part of how people move around, but we know there are also concerns about their use,” Szakacs said.
“This review is about listening, understanding those concerns and making sure the settings we have in place are right for our community.”
Community feedback was expected to inform the next phase of review, which would include evaluating data and evidence and engaging with local government, and road safety experts like the Australian Medical Association and RAA.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
