Lightweight, maneuverable, less polluting, electric scooters (e-scooters) could start invading our cities. But a series of accidents, is a reminder that traffic laws should also be imposed on this new mode of transport. With the next legislation approaching and test trials conducted by the Transport for London (TfL) currently underway; users, pedestrians, motorists and cities must learn to live together.
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Unlike many countries in the world, from France to the United States, e-scooters were not permitted in major cities across the UK and generally on roads and public thoroughfares. But the time has finally come for change. If the arrival of these electric scooters was only a matter of time, there is no doubt that the Covid crisis, complicating travel in usual public transport such as buses or the tube, has pushed London to enter this market. On Saturday, 4 July 2020, the UK implemented new laws allowing for the trial of rental e-scooters. Originally scheduled for next year, the decision was taken to accelerate the green recovery from the pandemic and to aid in mitigating the effects of the continuing climate catastrophe.
The Department for Transport (DfT) expects that the trials will provide light on whether rental e-scooters can genuinely assist decrease vehicle traffic in the UK and integrate seamlessly into existing networks, as well as on their safety implications for riders, pedestrians, and other road users.
What is driving this change in UK law? Well, it's the coronavirus epidemic. Like France, where many cities are now seeking to increase their volume of cycle paths, the United Kingdom sees electric scooters as an alternative to reducing the use of public transport in the city, without witnessing an explosion in automobile traffic.
Public Affairs manager at Lime, Hal Stevenson, told CIHT that “in many ways the pandemic has had a positive impact for the industry, obviously there are significant costs involved in terms of footfall in urban areas really dropping off, additional requirements in terms of sanitization of the vehicles, such as surface to surface contamination and generally making sure riders are feeling safe”.
It is finally in last June that Londoners and the rest of the country started to ride rental electric scooters in the streets of the United Kingdom. Note that there had also been some extremely supervised trials by DfT and TfL.
There are therefore three companies to partake in this trial in London. For the next 12 months, the American Lime, the German Tier and the Dutch Dott will take to the streets and launch this new means of transport. Rules will still be put in place for this life-size test.
First, the places where the scooters are available. The areas covered will be Camden,City of London, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth (north of the borough only), Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Tower Hamlets (limited parking at Canary Wharf and some TfL stations), Westminster. The tests are therefore localized and not all parts of London will participate. It will still be possible to ride/cross from one area to the other, however, in some cases it will not be allowed to leave the e-scooter.
Until now, it was almost impossible to be able to take an electric scooter and the consequences were severe. Rental electric scooters will now join the ranks of other shared mobility choices, such as bicycles and e-bikes, as a supplement to public transit and, of course, walking or using your own nonautomotive wheels as a substitute for driving. E-scooters have been viewed as a viable option for short distances (between one and five miles), as well as a last-mile solution when combined with other forms of transport such as buses and trains.
The trial across the UK eliminates limitations that previously classed e-scooters as motor vehicles, requiring them to be licenced and taxed, as well as having operators with permits to operate them. These laws also prohibited the use of private e-scooters on sidewalks, with the exception of a few (and extremely restricted) campuses on private land.
TfL, one of the major players in the arrival of e-scooters in London, nevertheless made it clear on its Twitter account on June 7 that the rental of electric scooters will be highly regulated. Any offense committed with this type of vehicle, if owned privately, will be punishable by fine. Most importantly e-scooter riders can go up to losing 6 points on their driving license and can get fined up to £300. Riding on sidewalks will strictly be prohibited. However, cycling zones will be accessible. This trial is very tightly supervised and rental electric scooters riders need to be over 18 years old and have a driver's license to be able to use one. With 12-inch diameter wheels, these small vehicles will get you up to 20 km / h in most accessible areas. Some passages though will be limited to only 8km / h.
The Transport Committee of MPs has proposed legalising e-scooters on public highways but not on sidewalks.
It states that expanding the usage of e-scooters would:
According to the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), e-scooters provide a "greener, lower-carbon option" for people who are unable or unable to cycle. Moreover, manufacturers claim that e-scooters may help with mental health and balance, which is unsurprising. On the other hand, the London Assembly concluded that e-scooters might have a detrimental effect on health if they were used in place of walking or cycling. Moreover, the general feeling is that parked vehicles are likely to cause disturbance, trip hazards, and blockage of sidewalks, all of which have a disproportionately negative impact on disabled people. Another growing concern is that the service is seen for primarily city centres and wealthier neighbourhoods, and so can potentially become inaccessible for most. However, the question remains, are hazards associated with micromobility comparable to those associated with cycling and can they become more manageable with clear guidelines in place?
Although the precise frequency of crashes involving privately owned e-scooters is unknown, Ch Supt Simon Ovens of the Metropolitan Police claimed the numbers were growing "rapidly".
Hal Stevenson from Lime told CIHT that: “...the trial framework we're currently in has been set up with safety as its absolute focus, and that's welcomed from a provider perspective… When we think about safety, we don't think of it as something done…Safety is a continual focus for us beyond what we are required to do by the Department of Transport, every day we're looking at how can we improve our incident response systems, how can we improve our reporting, what testing we should be doing on new hardware…every day we want our riders to be as safe as possible”
As is customary when anything new arrives in our lives, the debate between anti-scooters and zealous advocates of this new mode of transit ensues. Dangerous or practical? And what does the future hold for private e-scooter usage (which remains illegal) and for-hire e-scooter usage? At the moment, the City of London does not have the answer. It will take 12 months for the verdict to be delivered.
For more information, please contact Vassilis Alexakis, Policy Advisor for Technology & Innovation: Vassilis.alexakis@ciht.org,uk
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