Despite other people having misgivings about it, I was keen to see e-scooters regulated in England. I thought it was important to settle the matter of where they should be used. The road or the pavement? Despite being illegal on either they have been growing in popularity over the last year and used freely on both.
The Government has somehow managed to find itself in the unforgivable position of regulating them without settling this matter at all. Privately owned e-scooters are still effectively banned on the pavement and in the carriageway. Only shared mobility e-scooters will be allowed.
From 4 July the Government will put in place a framework to allow companies to offer shared mobility e-scooter schemes within a number of licensed local authority areas as part of an initial trial. Privately owned e-scooters are all still banned.
Even with the continued ban, the Government has given us some indication of how private e-scooters might be allowed on our streets at some point in the future. For that we can look at how the shared mobility schemes are being regulated. For the shared mobility e-scooters users must hold a full or provisional driving license, they cannot ride them on the pavement and they are limited to 15.5mph.
But what of the 50,000 people who bought an e-scooter in 2019? Are they going to leave them at home? Or hire from a company?
Agreed
[Unsubstantiated accusations snipped. LBM]
IMHO, private scooters should be allowed, with conditions, such as registration (separately from cars) & insurance.
And helmets should be compulsory
A simple solution is to treat all small powered vehicles as mopeds regardless of shape, and set an electric motor power limit equivalent to a 50cc engine. A slightly better approach would be to adjust the power limit downward for lighter vehicles to provide the same power to weight ratio for a vehicle and its average rider as a typical moped, to avoid pocket rocket e-scooters (also child-sized scooters would be more limited too).
Additionally, we should only allow vehicles on the footpath if they require a positive action to propel them, fit within a small size limit, and a very low (3-4mph) speed limit, perhaps higher for mobility scooters operated by competent (eyesight and cognition) blue badge holders and totally unpowered bikes operated by small children.
My concerns/problems with powered scooters comes from their probable (certain?) mixing with pedestrians on the pavements.
As powered machines, they should be on the roads & not the pavements, surely?
Currently powered wheelchairs and mobility sitters must not go over 4 mph on the pavement (Highway Code rule 39)
@GregT
The current regulations do not allow e-scooters to be used on the pavement
Quinlet
*sigh*
I have, already, seen e-scooters used on the pavement, several times ……