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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Steve Evans

E-scooters with seats arrive in Canberra

One of the companies renting out the electric machines is introducing 150 new ones with seats.

They will replace 150 standing-only ones so the company's Canberra fleet size of 950 will remain the same.

The idea is to broaden use, perhaps to older people. At the moment, the main users seem to be younger riders. Beam thinks the seated scooters will also make longer rides more attractive, widening the comfortable commuting distance.

Seated e-scooters arrived on Friday morning. Beam operations manager Ned Dale and Marshall Michael Rowley deliver some to Garema Place. Picture by Karleen Minney.

"Our goal is to bring safe, sustainable and equitable transportation to as many residents as possible, and we look forward to seeing the local communities embrace this new mode of transportation," Beam's Canberra operations manager Ned Dale said.

"Canberra has experienced great success with shared micromobility, which has become a preferred means of transportation for many Canberrans, and seen over 2.8 million kilometres ridden on Beams across Canberra to date.

"However, they have not been accessible to all members of the local community, which is a gap we are looking to address."

Beam's move comes as its rival Neuron prepares a publicity campaign to persuade more riders to use helmets.

Neuron has also been trying to broaden the range of riders. It found that Australian men rather than women tend to use them.

"According to survey data, a gender gap exists across our markets with a split of 59 per cent male and 40 per cent female riders," the company said.

It thinks that this balance can be righted. "Patterns across the world show younger women taking to e-scooters. Significant advancements in e-scooter design and regulation in recent years have meant that e-scooters are no longer regarded as just 'boys' toys'. In fact, a higher proportion of younger women (16 to 34 years) worldwide are now actively choosing to ride e-scooters compared to their male counterparts."

Canberra is becoming the electric scooter capital of Australia.

Seated e-scooters arrived in Canberra on Friday morning. Beam operations manager Ned Dale delivers some to Garema Place. Picture by Karleen Minney.

Figures from the Australian Road Safety Foundation indicate that 5.9 per cent of Canberran road users identify themselves as e-scooter riders, a higher figure than other jurisdictions.

Perhaps surprisingly, the ARSF figures also say that a higher proportion of Canberran road-users than those elsewhere say "I often take risks and break road rules".

In the ACT, 11.6 per cent say they break road rules. Only the Northern Territory comes close. All other jurisdictions are around 2 to 3 per cent for admitting to being road rule-breakers.

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