The most common reason to be fined on an e-scooter

Officers often cannot chase down dangerous e-scooter or illegal bike riders because a pursuit could endanger pedestrians, police say.

Almost 11,000 fines have been dished out to e-scooter riders across Queensland since the end of 2022 – and more than half are to riders for not wearing a helmet.

Speaking before a parliamentary e-mobility inquiry this week, Deputy Commissioner Cameron Harsley said officers were increasingly responding to incidents of dangerous riding, crashes with pedestrians and illegally modified e-scooters and bikes.

Hire e-scooters first arrived on Brisbane streets in late 2018, and shared and private devices have had a surge in popularity since then, which has been mirrored with increased enforcement.

But police face several issues in enforcing current laws.

LNP member for Cook David Kempton, a member of the committee holding the inquiry, said police officers had told him they were cautious of chasing down riders.

“(Police say) as soon as we touch the siren, we have a risk if that person injures themselves, a juvenile, or somebody else, that there’s going to be an inquiry, and it may act as a caution for them not to proceed,” Kempton said.

Harsley said police had a pursuit policy and stopping people on e-scooters or bikes was often very difficult.

“Because they’re in high-use public places where sometimes the interception of these vehicles would create a greater risk to the road users, or if it’s a busy, crowded walkway like Queen Street, and police try to take an action and somebody then tries to evade them, it actually could put more of the community in danger,” he said.

“So we refrain from taking that action.”

Harsley said some offenders would be aware of “when they may need to take an action that assists them rather than assisting the police”.

He said it was also difficult for officers to distinguish between illegal and legal bikes because they did not have registration plates or serial markings, while riders were often hard to identify if they did not carry ID, wore non-distinctive clothing or evaded police.

According to police figures, the most fined e-scooter users in Brisbane were men aged 18 to 24, with 1450 fines since November 2022.

In comparison, there were only 249 fines issued to women aged 18 to 24.

Not wearing a helmet was the most common offence for e-scooter riders, with 2250 fines in Queensland in 2024, but there were also 32 fines last year for speeding 20 to 30km/h above the limit, not on a footpath.

E-scooters are required to be limited to 25km/h, but some private owners illegally remove the speed limiter.

The figures were revealed at the e-mobility inquiry, which is holding hearings in Brisbane this week.

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