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?
