Wollongong's love-hate relationship with the e-scooters from Neuron

Since its launch in late September 2023, Neuron scooters have clocked over 200,000 kilometres in Wollongong, with the busiest period being the summer holidays where 40,000 trips were recorded.

Wollongong resident Jessica Lang said while she found them a really fun way to 'zip around town' she found the irresponsible use of them "irritating".

"They're pretty fun and it's great for Wollongong but seeing people get on them when they're drunk is just dangerous," she said.

"I just think about my career as a nurse and the stress it puts on an already busy hospital when people go around willy-nilly on these scooters and add to more incidents."

The main other issue was the zone layouts.

"It's really annoying because you're just cruising along and decide you've had enough and then all of a sudden you can't park in that zone," she said.

"The problem is most of the time you grab it for convenience sake because you want to get somewhere fast and the zoning kind of detracts from the practicality when you've got to spend five minutes finding somewhere to park it."

Regular e-scooter commuter and university student, Lachie Wischer, agreed that the zone layouts were tedious and confusing - even though he knew the layout of his hometown.

"The same can be said about the slow zones as well."

The trick was pre-planning Mr Wischer said, but ideally he'd hope for phone mounts to be installed on the scooters.

"A phone hold would be fantastic because even as a local I'm stopping and having to pull my phone out to check zones and I think it would be extra challenging for a tourist," he said.

Despite these challenges Mr Wischer prefers to opt for a scooter in his daily commute for uni and work, ditching his car and the fuel prices that go with it.

"I have a Neuron pass and I pay $49 a month which is a lot cheaper than driving and I'd encourage people to use their concession cards to get the discount with Neuron," he said.

"I get about 90 minutes of free usage a day and I rarely go over that."

"I think with a few improvements, they have big potential in Wollongong and they can work in conjunction with the city wanting to become a bike city."

Currently the most popular places for riders in Wollongong is Flagstaff Hill, Stuart Park, and the entry to Crown Street Mall, with many using e-scooters to travel along the Blue Mile Pathway and into the city centre.

Neuron Mobility head of market development, Tim Morris said research from their rider survey showed that, 65 per cent of respondents use e-scooters for their commute to work or study, 32 per cent are scooting to run errands, and 32 per cent use e-scooters to connect to public transport.

"86 per cent of riders would use e-scooters more often if they were available in more areas of Wollongong, with the most in demand locations being North Wollongong, West Wollongong, and Fairy Meadow," he said.

The 12 month trial finishing in late September 2024, was brought about by Transport NSW and NSW Government, working in conjunction with Wollongong City Council.

The trial is part of a broader study of e-scooters started by Transport for NSW last year. Privately owned e-scooters are still illegal under NSW road rules - and is limited to certain areas across the local government area.