In less than three months, electric scooter-sharing service Lime has entered the Australian market and is looking to expand onto the footpaths of Adelaide.

Key points: Lime wants 500 of its electric scooters on Adelaide footpaths

Lime wants 500 of its electric scooters on Adelaide footpaths The SA Government is currently considering a range of safety measures

The SA Government is currently considering a range of safety measures The company is confident its service is more viable than bike-sharing

The Californian tech company, which has already secured 150,000 users in Brisbane, wants a fleet of 500 electric scooters ready in time for the Adelaide Fringe festival, which starts in another two weeks.

E-scooters require users to download an app which allows them to be digitally unlocked, and charges a fee of 30 cents per minute of riding.

While they are only designed to travel up to 23 kilometres per hour, questions have been raised about the potential hazard they pose to pedestrians, how the vehicles should be classified, and whether the scooters could go the same way as failed bike-sharing schemes.

When will they hit the streets?

E-scooters already operate in more than 100 towns and cities throughout the world.

They are designed for the last leg of a journey — from the train or bus to the office.

Adelaide City Council is on board, and Lime is now in talks with the SA Government to get the necessary approvals.

The company's director of government strategy Mitchell Price said he wanted the scooters to eventually rival taxis and Ubers, and said 500 was a suitable number for an Adelaide trial.

"This number is what we enter all markets with around the world," he said.

"We are seeing a large demand.

"In Brisbane, where we have 750 scooters on the streets, these scooters are doing [up to] 9,000 trips per day."

Lime scooters were introduced in Brisbane in November and have surged in popularity. ( ABC News: Alle McMahon )

The SA Government was enthusiastic but said there were several issues that needed to be addressed.

"There are a whole host of decisions we have to make — where they're able to operate, what the conditions for operation are, how quick they can go," SA Transport Minister Stephan Knoll said.

"We're working as quickly as we can at the moment to identify those risks and provide a trial opportunity.

"We're keen to get it done for the Fringe, but we've got a responsibility to all road users and footpath users to get this right."

What are the safety concerns?

Organisations representing vision-impaired people have expressed concerns about having to share footpaths with electric scooters.

"If they start interacting with us on the footpath or whizzing around the footpath behind us and things like that, we'd probably find that quite disturbing," Royal Society for the Blind policy manager Tony Starkey told the ABC.

"We just think if anyone's on the footpath they shouldn't be going any faster than what the speed of the individual is, so if it's walking pace then it's walking pace."

Some pedestrians have complained about the speed the scooters can travel on shared paths.

Lime strategist Mitchell Price rides a scooter. ( ABC News: Tom Fedorowytsch )

In the United States riders have been killed in road accidents, but the company said it was opposed to making helmets compulsory.

"It is the users' responsibility to use these safely," Mr Price said.

"[We will] work with police to ensure users who are drink-riding or riding recklessly will also be charged and not allowed to use the scooters again.

"We've seen in Brisbane already two instances where riders have been fined for drink-riding, being over the limit."

The company said it was also working with the State Government and Adelaide City Council to "roll out a range of safety messages … if a trial is up and running for the Adelaide Fringe".

How will it work?

The scooters are dockless, which means there is no station where users have to return them.

However, there will be clusters of scooters at spots of anticipated high use, including bus stops and Fringe venues.

Mr Price said a team of drivers known as "juicers" would collect the scooters.

"They're people who can go around and pick up scooters with their car and they can also get paid to do so and charge them at home every night," he said.

Is it viable in the longer term?

A pile of share bikes stacked at a Melbourne oval. ( Facebook: Jack Vassallo )

Bike-sharing schemes have come under fire around Australia.

Many of the bikes in schemes in Adelaide and Melbourne were damaged by vandals or discarded on city streets, prompting companies like Ofo to withdraw from Australian cities.

"There were mistakes made in the rollout of ride-sharing bikes," Mr Knoll said.

"We saw ridiculous images of bikes stuck in trees, bikes being chucked in rivers, bikes being left all over the footpath.

"You're always going to get an element of stupidity and idiots doing the wrong things with any sort of public property.

"What we need to make sure is that these companies have in place a system that deals effectively when those situations occur."

He said the Government was "keen to learn the lessons" from bike-sharing schemes and said e-scooters were a "great potential public transport solution".

Mr Price said each scooter was equipped with GPS technology, and riders who did the wrong thing would face bans or stricter penalties.

"There's a geo-fence so the user won't be able to end the trip, so they'll be continually charged or a warning message will be given through the app that they have to return it through the geo-fence zone," he said.

He said if someone were to throw them in the water, they would sink.

"We have mechanisms to let us know if they are in water or if the scooters are tipped over on their side," he said.