Laws around e-scooters in South Australia could be reformed next year after the state's premier backed a call by the police commissioner for legislation around them to be changed or clarified.
E-scooters can be bought to be used on private property but are illegal to ride on roads, footpaths and bike tracks in South Australia, except in areas where several Adelaide councils have allowed them to be used when hired from a private operator.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said this exemption, which began in 2019, was creating confusion for users, with many people buying e-scooters for private use to get around the CBD and Adelaide suburbs.
"I think when you have this anomaly where you can purchase something that you believe you can use in a legitimate way, yet you're actually contravening the law, we need to be more clear or we need to revisit the legislation and find a middle point where people can take advantage of this global trend," Mr Stevens told ABC Radio Adelaide.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said he was not aware riding a privately owned e-scooter was illegal until recently.
"I wasn't aware of the fact until recently that that was illegal," he said, "because most people would see e-scooters in Adelaide in operation now — the hire version which are perfectly legal and entirely authorised — and assume that the same applied to privately owned e-scooters.
"That isn't the case and that's why I think we need to put that clarity in place."
He said new laws could be introduced next year with provisions to keep pedestrians safe.
"We need to get that balance right," he said.
Heavy fines handed out to users
A Reddit user called crewster666 reported last month that police had fined him $1,900 on Marion Road in Marion for riding his privately owned scooter in a bike lane near a scooter store.
"Apparently he has been camping out near Scooter Hut awaiting scooter riders and had also fined two other riders that day," the man said.
Under South Australian law, e-scooters fall under a category called motorised wheeled recreational devices.
They cannot be registered or insured so cannot be used in public locations.
Traffic lawyer Karen Stanley described the current laws as "a hot mess".
"I think it's really mean for police to be slugging people nearly $2,000 because of a law that they didn't know," she said.
Commissioner Stevens said he was unaware of the complaint.
"I would expect that police officers who are intervening and taking action against people using their own e-scooter would be because the person's own behaviour would be quite extreme and putting them and other people at risk, because there are lots of people using them," he said.
"It's my view that police have got better things to do than to be targeting people who are probably not aware of the fact that they are breaching the regulations."
He said police had given out 230 fines to scooter users involved in the schemes allowed by councils.
Expiation notice data released by SA Police shows most fines have been handed out for not wearing helmets rather than riding scooters that are unregistered and uninsured.
Police have exemption to use e-scooters
SA Police has an exemption to use e-scooters for officers to get around the Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide that runs until 2024.
"They've proven to be extremely useful and they're a great device for police to be more mobile and to get from one location to another or search areas within the CBD very quickly — a very effective tool," the police commissioner said.
He said there had been 23 collisions involving e-scooters in the council schemes.
A parliamentary select committee set up by the Greens and not backed by Labor is looking at public and active transport, including the laws around e-scooters.
"What we know is that cars are a huge source of carbon emissions here in South Australia and we need to be encouraging active transport and public transport," Greens MP Robert Simms said.
The hired e-scooter scheme in Adelaide City Council is due to end on December 31, while the exemptions for private operators in Unley, Norwood Payneham and St Peters, and along the Adelaide foreshore, run into 2023.
E-scooters are allowed for widespread public use in Queensland and the ACT.
