THE urban landscape around Civic, Acton and Braddon will never be the same.

Neither will pedestrians walking at pace along already busy footpaths.

It’s not quite a sign of the apocalypse, but the newfangled e-scooters have made navigating Canberra akin to avoiding the proverbial horseman.

Spotting a man in a suit and tie capped off with a dignified stack helmet on has been as common a morning sight as that same man riding on the verge of intoxication later that night into the darkness.

Most of the 1500 e-scooters lie littered on the horizon, unscrupulously dumped where they stopped, since their introduction last September.

It’s an anarchic sight not seen since the unbridled escape of the shopping trolley loose in suburbia.

Operators Neuron and Beam were given the green light to trial Canberra’s electronic devices in a rare competitive synergy to keep the wheels turning.

To illustrate how much they are on the same page, both told “CityNews” the response has been “overwhelmingly positive” from the thousands of trips.

“Of course, there have been a few people who are still undecided about e-scooters – that happens, particularly in the early days of a new program, but it’s just overwhelmingly positive,” Neuron Mobility regional manager Richard Hannah says. 

Their reach has even stretched as far north as Belconnen and right across Lake Burley Griffin to Canberra’s inner south.

The service that costs a buck to unlock the e-scooters and 38 cents for every minute gripped behind the handlebars is giving short Uber trips a run for their money in this age of transport frivolity.

“Many are making trips they wouldn’t otherwise have made,” Mr Hannah says. 

“E-scooters are inexpensive when compared to many other forms of transport, and if you choose an e-scooter over a car for a short trip, it significantly reduces congestion and emissions.”

After success in foreign markets, unlimited growth potential for the future commercial journey promises to last longer than their batteries will. 

Canberra is hardly Singapore, but fewer cars on shorter trips is a win.

None more so than the profits going into the pockets of providers that both declined to reveal their early financial returns on the rentals to “CityNews”. 

They instead, at least publicly, espouse a holistic viewpoint that e-scooters are in Canberra for the greater good.

“There will be more progress in how micro-mobility providers integrate into existing transport systems and how they share data with councils and alike, so they can better plan the cities of the future,” Mr Hannah says.

“We’ll continue to develop our products, e-scooters and other micro-mobility options, and aim to provide Canberra riders with the very best options.” 

It would seem that the profitability of their Canberra operations can only be harmed by rising cases of vandalism.

There is an admission it is “impossible” to eliminate deliberate damage to e-scooters that is factored into costing models.

The devices are installed with GPS connectivity to a server where they can be immobilised, locked and temporarily unusable until retrieved for repair. 

“Thankfully cases of repeat offending are rare,” Mr Hannah says. 

“We generally warn people and try to re-educate them, but we can also suspend their accounts if they have been riding dangerously or if they continually break the rules.” 

Big Brother’s influence starts the moment potential joyriders download their app, click on the prompts and type in their details.

The trips are logged so their location can be linked to damaged e-scooters.

“Vehicle loss can be a significant negative impact on a scooter company’s bottom line,” Beam Australia and NZ director of expansion Tom Cooper says. 

“We are fortunate that loss due to theft or vandalism has been low in Canberra and well within our projections.”

Despite “topple detection” notifying which e-scooters are down and out, Canberra staff appear to struggle to catch the eyesore of strewn vehicles left on their side and not repositioned. 

How many end up obscurely lost in the wrong suburbs, not even the best technology can tell.

But any thoughts of absconding over the border to Queanbeyan has been dismissed. 

They are “geofenced”, that allows providers to control the power source to where they ride and where they are parked.

Suspicions the e-scooter software has been hacked were dismissed after sightings of young kids illegally riding them with milk crates for saddles.

“We have no concerns over the software and have a robust testing and implementation process whenever we make changes to our firmware,” Mr Cooper says.  

“While we have been made aware of a few instances of minors riding the e-scooter, this has not occurred through any problems in the software.”