Hire e-scooters will be locked from midnight in Brisbane’s biggest party precincts under another significant safety measure to be introduced by the Schrinner Council.

Brisbane Civic Cabinet Chair for Transport Ryan Murphy has revealed the trial preventing people from operating the hire e-scooters would begin 1 December and be enforced for the next six months.

The shutdown of Beam and Neuron’s e-scooter fleets will run for five hours from midnight throughout the Brisbane CBD and Fortitude Valley Safe Night Precincts on Friday and Saturday nights. Riders will be able to end a trip in the zone but unable to ‘unlock’ an e-scooter and start a trip.

“We have introduced a number of industry-leading safety reforms since the introduction of hire e-scooters in Brisbane and this trial is yet another example,” Cr Murphy said.

“Hire e-scooters are enormously popular with both residents and visitors with the number of trips now topping five million.

“Unfortunately, a very small minority of people are using these devices inappropriately, putting themselves and others at risk, so we are going to trial locking people out after midnight in the areas where this behaviour is most common.

“This trial can only apply to hire e-scooters and we need now is the state government road rules applied to private e-scooters.”

Under the trial, the speed limit of all the hire e-scooters will also be reduced to 15 km/h across the entire city on Friday and Saturdays after midnight.

Other improvements since hire e-scooters were introduced in 2018 include the introduction of helmet locks, the CityLink Cycleway trial and new e-mobility parking hubs.

Cr Murphy also announced a new trial of hire e-scooters in the bayside suburbs of Wynnum, Manly, Sandgate and Shorncliffe from December 1.

The six-month trial includes 200 e-scooters in the Wynnum Manly area and 150 in the Sandgate and Shorncliffe area.

“Both these areas are really popular, with visitors and locals asking us to bring e-scooters to the bayside to support tourism, businesses and connections to public transport,” Cr Murphy said.

“Summer is coming, and these trials will give residents and visitors more options to move around our city and experience the best of Brisbane while building on our safety focus for riders.”

Safe night precinct maps: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/hospitality-tourism-sport/liquor-gaming/liquor/safe-night-precincts/maps