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Bird e-scooters at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (copyright Simon MacMichael).JPEGBan on electric scooters on UK roads could end, says minister
Transport minister Jesse Norman says that an effective ban on using electric scooters on UK roads could end – potentially opening the way for scooter-sharing firms to enter the British market.
Currently, it is in effect illegal to ride an electric scooter on the public highway in the UK, although US start-up Bird – together with Lime and Uber-owned Jump the biggest names in the industry – has scooters for hire at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Lime has launched electric bike-sharing service in Milton Keynes and the London boroughs of Brent and Ealing, although it has not yet introduced its scooters to the UK.
Electric scooters are banned on the footway and, to all practical purposes, on the road too – in theory, they could be ridden there if the user had a driving licence, insurance, helmet, paid vehicle excise duty and the scooter carried a registration plate.
But since the DVLA considers them to be unroadworthy, the final point is a stumbling blog that in effect renders them unusable here.
Norman told the Observer that some form of licensing may be one way of allowing the vehicles on British roads.
“E-scooters, e-bikes, e-mopeds, e-skateboards – we’re seeing these all over the streets already and we’re thinking about those modes of transport,” he said.
“We’re going to look quite closely at what the wider environment is for a lot of these different vehicles. How these things might be either permitted or licenced or regulated to go on to the road, or other forms of land.”
While electric scooters may be in effect illegal, their sale in the UK is not, and court cases have been brought against people using them.
The Observer says that last year, a youth aged 15 was had any driving licence he may hold in future endorsed with six penalty points after he was found riding one at high speed.
Where they have been introduced, such as across the US and in an increasing number of cities across Europe including Paris and Zurich, the scooters have proved hugely popular, especially for the final section of a commute.
There have been concerns about their safety, however, with four reported deaths linked to them in the US last year as well as one in Barcelona.
Norman said: “I wouldn’t trust myself to go two yards on an e-skateboard.
“I haven’t used an e-scooter, but I’ve used a scooter on many occasions and I’m an e-biker, so I’ve got a pretty good understanding of the experience.”
Speaking of a forthcoming urban mobility review to be conducted by the Department for Transport, he said: “At the moment, you cannot legally ride a scooter on a UK road or pavement, but we see a lot of them being ridden and they’re not on private land.
“There’s a question of how we react to that. And that, in turn, relates to a question about safety. We want to create a transport system that is as safe, resilient and convenient as possible,” Norman added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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23 comments
Looking at the near misses in Portugal of escooters in cycles lanes (plenty on YouTube) I would be all for a continuing ban especially in London. The casual riders (demographic will be tourists) are going to end up in a serious collision if they weave / aren't shoulder checking as commuting cyclists are much faster than Portugal.
I agree with this. I think it would be extraordinarily dangerous to have escooters sharing cycle lanes in London. Tourists weaving around on Boris Bikes not looking out for other cyclists are already a frequent hazard not to mention rickshaws using the Embankment section of the SH and tourists unexpectedly stepping into the cycle lanes. There’s been a very hard battle fought by cycling lobby groups to get these lanes put in to make cycling safe and they have been designed with cycling in mind not an unplanned for mixture of cycling and other slower moving, unstable and potentially erratic users. Making them wider and giving over more road space to non-motorised transport would work but squeezing both into the current narrow space for cycling would be a recipe for disaster.
What you are basically doing is creating an "out group" who are of course all unreasonable and unworthy and must be opposed by the "in group" cyclists. This is basically the same as the tribal debates around cycling vs cars.
An electric scooter in functionally similar to a cyclist, it is environmentally friendly, reduces congestion and is a practical method for making a short journey. Evidence is that people like using them and they have as much of a right to make those journeys and use the same infrastructure as those who use very similar but slightly differently configured 2 wheel vehicles.
Allowing electric scooters is a net positive for society and any issues should simply be resolved
I really can't decide what I think about this.
The question is, I suppose, whether 'e-scooter' users will add to the push for more space to be transferred from conventional motorised traffic or if they will be people who drive for most trips but want to steal what little space cyclists have, for occasional leisure trips.
I dunno, really.
But I'm irritated with spurious accusations of 'tribalism'. Whether it's transport-mode or poltiics, it's a stupid accusation. It's not about tribes it's about self-interest. The debates about cycling vs cars is not 'tribal' (for one thing that accusation makes it sound like it's some symmetrical 'fault on both sides' thing, when it clearly isn't, for another it's structural not tribal, just like most political issues that lazily get called 'tribal').
I'm pretty sure that there will be an announcement with fanfares for this relaxation of the law, enabling the government to claim that they are promoting "environmentally friendly" transport, which is a bit of a joke since this government is completely Brexit-bound and unable to do even that, let alone anything else. Like the 2014 review of road law which really would help, not just a token effort like electric scooters.
Just wait until the first pedestrian gets mown down by one.
So ... Bird. Lime. Jump.
Is it written into the rules somewhere that eScooter hire companies have to have a name consisting of a single 4-letter word?
There seems to be a lot of "It's illegal, we don't have the manpower to enforce/stop it, so we'll make it legal: Problem solved!"
Watch this space for the road safety review to make using a mobile phone or eating your breakfast at the wheel perfectly legal too...
Seriously...
Things are meant to be illegal for a reason, the correct behaviour is to assess the purpose of the law and adapt it not enforce uneforcable laws for no reason.
Making something legal does not mean that other things must also be made legal.
The laws that make e-scooters illegal are outdated and unduely restrictive. As a result those e-scooter companies are all foriegn.
These things litter the streets of California, they're dumped all over the place and the police seem to spend a lot of time telling people where not to ride them. Might take the focus away from cyclists I guess!
Was it California where the city confiscates the "abandoned" scooters and then auctions them off to the highest bidder? I remember reading about an electronics hack to render the scooters usable to an end-user and the company (Bird? Lime?) tried to get the hack made unlawful through the DCMA (they didn't succeed).
Edit: it was Bird - they tried to get BoingBoing to remove this article though they later apologised for being complete ass-hats about it:
https://boingboing.net/2018/12/08/flipping-a-bird.html
I'm not sure - it just looked ridiculously untidy in some spots.
Given that you have be able to propel a pedalec with some human effort then the current laws for that would have to be changed. Thus e-bikes would be able to solely run on stored power, I.e. they'd be a e-moped/motorcycle.
Honestly I hope they don't, pedal assist cycles with limited speed to 12mph just barely turning the pedals over (not the current 15.5), yes, scooters on the roads, it's a big fat no from me.
Unless you're going to make carriageways one way for motors and the other lanes for bi-directional cycling/scooting then I think that e-scooters/scooter operators are going to cause more problems (less control, less ability to deal with road imperfections and from what I've seen more likely the operators act recklessly) and it won't be motorists using them so no reduction in individual car use.
A cycle/e-bike is perfect for short, mid or longer range journeys. You don't need special kit, you can swing you leg over just as quickly and there's more stability and IMHO more safety over a scooter.
Yep, I pretty much agree with all that.
One factor that you're not mentioning is the "perception" factor - businessmen/women will think it's perfectly acceptable to ride an e-scooter whilst wearing a suit whereas they won't think that you could do that on a bike.
I see them fairly regularly in London now. I saw a fuel-powered one at the weekend also. One chap who lives nearby zips past our house regularly on his.
If you ask me, they're not that suitable for UK roads. The small wheels make them really vulnerable to potholes. They don't tend to be that well lit at night.
I'd rather have an e-bike myself.
"...a stumbling blog..."
"...a youth aged 15 was had any driving licence..."
My rates for proof-reading are extremely reasonable.
You wouldn't know they were banned, the number I see on my way to work.
Frankly, I think you'd have to be mental to ride an eScooter on the road. They're not quick enough, seem to get close-passed even more often than bicycles and genuinely are borderline invisible in the dark.
Amazing that you see so many, given they're 'borderline invisible'
I see quite a few on CS1 and New North Road. Terrible brakes, just the rear 'press on the tyre' brake, like a kid's scooter, but capable of 20km/h.
I suppose it will give the car lobby someone else to hate. Share the pain!
Cities in the US that I have visited have far wider pavements and the grid layout of streets is conducive to generally better sight lines than in the UK. Living near Cambridge where the mere mention of cycling brings out the spittle flecked ravings of of the local gammons, I can just imagine the apoplectic rage that eScooters will induce.
.
I used a Lime scooter abroad recently and found it enjoyable and much better than walking a long distance. That was on near empty pavements. Could be problematic on busier pavements.
I guess they are great on smooth Swiss roads but what are they like on potholes ? Eek !
Personally, I like the idea of electric scooters on the roads and maybe even on cycle paths with suitable caveats (i.e. ridden carefully). I've seen them mingling with other traffic on roads in Paris and they seem to work well, though I remember hearing somewhere that they're involved in a lot of collisions.
What I like is the way that they can increase the options for medium distance city travel and hopefully increase driver's awareness of other vehicles as electric scooters are going to be splitting lanes and crossing between cars wherever they can.