1 August 2025

WATCH: Will this be Canberra's newest e-scooter?

| By James Coleman
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Trent Williams on an Ario e-scooter

Ario Australia executive Trent Williams says the ACT Government will choose his company if “it values safety”. Photo: James Coleman.

The ACT Government is looking for a new provider of shared e-scooters for Canberra and high on the list of those angling for a shot is Ario.

Established a little more than a year ago, Ario currently runs e-scooter fleets in Cairns and Townsville in Queensland and Christchurch in New Zealand, as well as shared e-bikes in Sydney.

The scooters are easily set apart by their three wheels and AI-driven tech that together promise to fix all the problems faced by many current-model e-scooters.

We joined Ario Australia executive Trent Williams for a trial run at Regatta Point to find out how it works …

Applications to the ACT Government’s tender process closed on 1 August, with successful applicants expected to begin operations in spring 2025.

See our previous story for more detail on Ario and how its e-scooters work, here.

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Scott Meikle9:59 am 04 Aug 25

Is Ario Australia executive Trent Williams a man of faith or just has good fashion sense?

Like cars these scooters are getting better and more safer all the time. They are a convenient and simple mode of transport, it is just the small number of thoughtless idiots who have no respect for authority, using them as an excuse to disregard road rules, refusing to wear helmets and leaving them to rot in remote and out of the way places, threatening their future availability. I have seen many of these thoughtless idiots but the most memorable was someone zigzagging down the middle of a major street in my suburb with a young child clinging to him, speeding through a give way sign without looking and neither wearing a helmet. How stupid are these people?

Capital Retro12:19 pm 03 Aug 25

Like all the other scooters, it doesn’t have a bell so it’s illegal.

@Capital Retro
Like many e-scooters that don’t have a bell, CR, they would have a motor cycle style ‘horn’, as the warning device – which is perfectly legal.

Capital Retro10:16 pm 03 Aug 25

None of the e-scooters have a bell so where is the warning device (horn) and what does it sound like?

@Capital Retro
It’s like a motor bike/scooter, CR, where the ‘horn’ is also not visible, and is activated by a button on the handle bars.

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