Intrepid, two-wheel travellers will be able to traverse the full north to south stretch of the capital on a public e-scooter, with Tuggeranong added to the available areas of the scheme.
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Transport Minister Chris Steel said Canberra had become Australia's largest shared e-scooter city, with 132 square kilometres now open to e-scooter travel.
"With shared e-scooters now available across the entirety of our city, Canberrans can travel north to south and east to west using a range of shared paths and connecting links," Mr Steel said.
Mr Steel said the government had worked with the two e-scooter operators - Beam and Neuron - to implement slow zones and parking sites as part of planning work to expand the scheme.
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More than 2.4 million trips have been made on the e-scooters since the first trial in Canberra in 2020.
The scooters will now be available in Wanniassa, Oxley, Monash, Greenway, Bonython, Isabella Plains, Coombs, Wright, Holder, Waramanga, Stirling, Pearce, Torrens and Farrer.
Beam's Canberra operations manager Ned Dale said the company was committed to upgrading its e-scooters to make them safe for all Canberrans.
"Ahead of our expansion into Tuggeranong, we have commenced a trial of tactile signage on our e-scooters to support pedestrians, especially those with blind or low vision, to report badly parked scooters," Mr Dale said.
"We are also increasing the number of Beam safety ambassadors - team members who enforce riding rules - on the streets, keeping a particular eye out on offences like dangerous riding around pedestrians and bad parking."
Neuron Mobility's Richard Hannah said safety remained a top priority for the company as it expanded and its e-scooters were fitted with "cutting-edge" safety features.
"E-scooters are a great way for locals as well as tourists to travel in a safe, convenient and sustainable way. Recent rider research shows the majority of Neuron trips result in a purchase at a local business and this is providing a welcome boost to the local economy," Mr Hannah said.
The ACT government in October 2021 committed to expanding the e-scooter hire scheme to all of Canberra by the end of 2022, acting on the recommendations of a review which backed a city-wide rollout.
The e-scooter zone was most recently expanded to Gungahlin and Woden in August, with an e-scooter transit link established between the city and Belconnen in April.
A 19-year-old woman died in Kambah in September after being hit by a car while she was riding a privately owned e-scooter, in an incident the police said was "tragic and preventable". It was the first e-scooter related death on Canberra's roads.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
