City of Greater Geraldton votes to extend Beam’s e-scooter licence for six months, while opening EOI period

The green light has been given to the existing provider of rental e-scooters to continue operating in Geraldton for six months, while council investigates how much interest is out there from other operators.

Greater Geraldton councillors voted 8-1 to give Beam Mobility a six-month extension to their licence, during which time an expression of interest period will be opened up to erideable hire companies.

There was limited debate and no changes to the executive recommendations at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Council also approved enhanced safety requirements being a part of any new deal, with a list of recommended changes being a ban between midnight and dawn, a lower maximum speed of 20km/h, a sobriety test every night after 8pm, a reduction of the total number of e-scooters from 350 to 250 and charging the operator a fee of $1 a day per e-scooter to go towards public education and infrastructure.

Public debate around e-scooters is typically divisive, but has ramped up in the wake of the death on Christmas Eve of a 37-year-old man who fell off a Beam e-scooter on a footpath on Brand Highway in Tarcoola Beach.

Mayor Jerry Clune said the recent fatality did not influence the council in its approach.

“The onus goes on the user, so we ask for responsible behaviour,” he said.

“What we’ve seen is an explosion in the number of erideables, not only the hired ones but the private ones as well ... people vote with their feet because they’re jumping on and using them in good numbers.

“As far as trauma on the roadsides, I think you’ve got to take it into context with every other use of the road, like pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles. There’s all stories that don’t have happy endings.

“Because we have a little bit more control with erideables, the hired ones, then we are certainly hoping we can sort of lift the standard up and then those with the private ones, which we don’t have any control over, we certainly hope they abide by them as well.

“There’s some brutes of things running around the community at the moment (private e-scooters) ... you don’t even need a licence to be operating on these. So we do need that legislation to come in.”

Mr Clune was referring to the delayed State Government response to 33 recommendations made by a parliamentary inquiry examining the safety of erideables.

The mayor said the council had met with Beam and they were “quite receptive” to some of the suggested changes going forward.

“The city was one of the first local governments to actually put out erideables to hire, so we’ve learnt a few lessons along the way and we’re probably a little bit better informed coming up to the next time we let a contract out,” he said.

“We’re all in a learning game with it and they’re (Beam) keen to not tarnish their reputation with people using them. They do have a little bit of control about speed zones and where they can go and can’t go. They are keen to improve their image as well, we are working with them at the present moment to see what they can do.”

The licence granted by the council allows Beam e-scooters to be used and parked on council land.

Mr Clune said the lack of helmet use on hired e-scooters was a big concern.

“Sometimes they use the excuse of the helmet wasn’t there or I’m going to get head lice or the world’s going to fall off. But you know your head is an important part of your body and everything runs from there,” he said.

Under the motion passed at Tuesday’s council meeting, shortlisted applicants will present to council at a future concept forum while the CEO will write to the State Government encouraging them to reach a decision following the inquiry.

Cr Shane Van Styn said e-scooters were “wildly popular” and “here to stay”, but now was not the time to “dwell on specifics” as there would be a lot of opportunities down the track to discuss and debate the details.

Cr Peter Fiorenza said much of the negative commentary on social media and in the media recently could be put down to a “kneejerk reaction”. He also said the council was hamstrung by the State Government’s “negligence” in not moving forward already with legislation.

Cr Tim Milnes was the only councillor to vote against extending Beam’s licence, believing doing so opens up the council to “unnecessary risk”. He said the venture provided “no direct financial benefit” to council, also noting the impact the rise in e-scooters was having on presentation to hospital emergency departments.

Beam has been operating in Geraldton since September 2022.

A Beam spokesperson said more than 35,000 people had used their service in Geraldton, travelling close to 1 million kilometres across 400,000 trips. That equates to an average of about 2500 trips a week, covering about 5500km.

The spokesperson said more than “99.9 per cent of trips start and end safely and without incident.”

The company has banned about 165 users in Geraldton under its three-strikes policy.