Love them or loathe them, Wollongong's e-scooters aren't going anywhere just yet

It’s been a year since e-scooters appeared on Wollongong streets, and they’re set to stay – for the time being, at least.

Wollongong City Council has announced it will continue the shared trial of the technology, although an end date has not been decided yet.

Some adjustments will be made based on residents’ feedback, such as dedicated e-scooter parking spots on Burelli Street, lower Crown Street and the Blue Mile.

A Wollongong City Council spokesperson said council wanted to learn more about riders’ preferred routes and opportunities the shared scheme offered, and it would be able to share more information about the extension in late October.

According to the council’s data, since the trial’s launch, the e-scooters have gone on more than 165,000 trips and clocked up nearly 317,000 km – almost eight trips around the globe.

Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said the past 12 months had come with many learnings, but the technology was enthusiastically adopted by plenty of residents – including incoming Lord Mayor Tania Brown.

“Wollongong is one of the first councils in NSW to test this ambitious shared e-scooter scheme, and sometimes it is not easy being the first, so we appreciate our community working with us,” Cr Bradbery said.

“To date, we’re making up half of the overall shared e-scooter usage in NSW, and on a weekly basis, we’re seeing an average of about 3200 trips.

“If we look closer at this trial data, we see valuable insights into people’s travelling behaviours.

“It’s no surprise many trips are for recreational use along our beautiful coastline, but it’s also pleasing to see people using them to get to university, work and public transport.

“This shows us how they are fitting into community life and their effectiveness in supporting daily movements.”

The purpose of Wollongong’s shared e-scooter trial is to explore a more sustainable and flexible transport option.

It aims to see if they are a good transport choice for people and how it works within our existing transport network.

It also identifies whether future transport improvements would need to support e-scooter use.

Cr Bradbery said the council had also looked at areas for improvement to ensure the trial’s longevity and safety for everyone.

“From the start, we’ve been clear to say this is a live trial,” he said.

“This means that council, Transport for NSW and our service providers Neuron, can make changes based on what our community are telling us.

“We’ve heard concerns around safety and riding behaviours, and we continue to work with NSW Police to tackle this matter.

“We’re also working with our providers to address concerns about where users are parking the e-scooters after trips and have rolled out dedicated parking zones in key locations like Burelli Street, lower Crown Street, and foreshore areas including the Blue Mile.

“With this being said, we haven’t needed to make any major changes. So, we want to continue the trial to gain a bigger picture of how they’ll operate if it was to become long-term. The trial also helps NSW Government inform their policy on the future of shared e-scooters in NSW.

“I want to make it clear to our community that this is still very much a trial. Any decision to make the shared e-scooter scheme permanent will require community input as well as approval from the NSW Government.”