Adam Rossetto

I believe no one should lose their life on a footpath, and Australians shouldn't have to choose between new ways of moving and keeping people safe. We've taken over 10 million trips on shared e-scooters and e-bikes, yet safety settings haven't kept pace, and riders and pedestrians are paying the price.

I've spent seven years building Australia's shared e-mobility sector from its earliest trials, first at Beam Mobility and then Ario Mobility. Along the way I testified before parliamentary inquiries, briefed Ministers and consulted with regulators across the country, advocacy that contributed to improved safety policy. The systems my teams built delivered Australia's lowest serious injury rate and taught me the lesson that drives everything I do: good regulation and smart technology save lives.

A turning point came in 2025, when a Perth man was killed on a footpath by an intoxicated rider on a hire e-scooter. His death exposed what many of us already knew: Australia's regulation is fragmented and reactive, with eight different regimes and no agreed standards. The people most at risk, including pedestrians with vision impairment, older Australians and children, are too often left out of the conversation. The harm-reduction tools that work, from pedestrian detection to shared safety data, were built and proven overseas, not here.

Now an independent e-mobility advisor, I’ll use my Churchill Fellowship to travel to the UK, France, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and the US to learn from the cities, regulators and operators leading the world on e-mobility safety.

On my return I will produce a white paper on e-mobility harm reduction, giving governments, councils, operators and advocacy groups practical evidence they can act on. My vision is simple: an Australia where everyone can embrace new ways of moving, and every street is safe for the people riding and walking on it.