Melbourne council ditches e-bike and e-scooter trial amid complaints

An inner-Melbourne council has voted to scrap a trial of shared e-bikes and e-scooters, marking the end of shared e-scooters north of the Yarra River.Darebin councillors voted to scrap the trial, which had been running for six months in the municipality's southern suburbs of Northcote, Fairfield and Alphington.Council officers found there had been 14,725 trips over the six months, an average of 98 trips a day, travelling an average 2.15 kilometres.But Mayor Emily Dimitriadis told a council meeting that 93 per cent of feedback was negative."Throughout the trial, residents continued reporting e-scooters and e-bikes blocking footpaths, parked incorrectly and creating accessibility issues, riders with no helmets, e-scooters and e-bikes travelling on footpaths," she said. Emily Dimitriadis says the community has rejected the scheme. (Instagram: Emily Dimitriadis)Officers found most people who used the trial used it to connect to public transport, and that usage peaked overnight.But parking the bikes and scooters was a problem when officers inspected 279 allocated parking bays."Untidy parking including non-compliant, toppled or misplaced devices was observed at 30 per cent of all bays," a council report presented at the meeting said. Cr Dimitriadis said the scheme also went over budget, despite the operator, Lime, paying Darebin $18,000."Council not only spent $50,000 to set up the trial, it also spent more money administering and managing the trial," she said.Residents had raised issues with e-bikes and e-scooters being left in the middle of footpaths. (Supplied: Matthew Zammit)Environmental and transport benefits arguedDarebin resident Matthew Zammitt organised a petition against the scheme, which attracted 1,227 signatures.He told the meeting he had had trouble negotiating around abandoned e-bikes with a pram, with bikes blocking footpaths, driveways and entrances to train stations."It's the modern-day monorail," he said, referencing an episode of The Simpsons where the city invests in a transport scheme that ultimately fails."Councils are being duped into thinking that this solves transport woes."In an episode of The Simpsons, the townspeople are convinced to spend millions of dollars on a monorail rather than fixing Main Street. (Supplied: 20th Century Fox)But former Darebin mayor Suzanne Newton, who brought the initial scheme to Darebin, told the meeting the scheme had many benefits for the climate and getting people out of cars."Particularly for the so-called last mile journey, to get people home from the train or tram or bus," she said.She said there was some "pushback", but the trial also showed benefits, including nearly half of trips started or ended at a public transport stop, and 37 per cent were said to replace a car journey.Councillor Ruth Jelley called on the council to continue the trial, arguing the climate benefits should not be overlooked — council officers found riders saved approximately 1.16 tonnes of carbon emissions."How can we call ourselves climate leaders if we fail to deliver on key actions in our climate emergency plan?" she said."We are now falling behind NSW and other cities around the world in supporting micromobility through shared schemes such as this."Short-termism is killing our climate leadership ambitions, and it's also killing our planet."Ninety-three per cent of feedback council received about e-bikes and e-scooters was negative. (Supplied: Matthew Zammit)In July, Yarra council ended a six-year shared e-bike scheme with Lime, saying the operator refused to take responsibility for dumped bikes.The City of Melbourne dumped its e-scooter scheme in 2024, although there are 500 shared e-bikes available in the city through Lime.Across the river, in Port Philip, Lime and Neuron operate shared e-scooter schemes, with more than 1.5 million trips since 2022, according to the council, while bayside Frankston, south of Melbourne, ended its micromobility trial in 2024.In December 2025, the regional city of Ballarat voted to continue its shared e-bike and e-scooter service.Lime said in a statement that Darebin's decision to end the trial was "not a failure of the council's judgement, but geography". "When the City of Yarra ended its e-bike scheme in July, the corridor between Darebin and the city closed, and Darebin was left with a network that couldn't go anywhere," said Lime's head of Asia-Pacific, Will Peters."This is the result when a network service is regulated on a municipality-by-municipality basis."He agreed with council that "shared micromobility is public transport, and public transport is the state's domain.""Darebin's trial produced real evidence, and council is right to take it into its Integrated Transport Strategy," Mr Peters said."It belongs in a state conversation about how shared transport is governed in Victoria. "We'll keep working with councils and the Victorian government to get there."