ACSO’s work on vulnerable road user topics includes considering the future of escooters. Our July 2022 report noted that the laws covering their use are no longer fit for purpose. We have ended up in the bizarre situation where a million or more private escooters have been bought but cannot be used legally on our public highways, while the temporary trials of escooters in many of our bigger cities have been extended while we wait for the Department for Transport to make its mind up after various consultation exercises and cancelled legislation.
There is no doubt they are a controversial form of transport, and the news from Paris that 89 per cent of the city’s residents voted to ban rental escooters made headlines over here. However, the referendum in the French capital was only advisory, and in any case only 7.45 per cent of adults turned out to vote.
From ACSO’s position, the concerns are not only for the safety of escooter riders but also all other road users, as well as for the legal limbo consumers find themselves in.
Our 2022 report suggested that the genie is already out of the bottle, and so the government should focus on ways to make escooter use as safe as possible while giving all of us the protections we need, for instance by making insurance compulsory, having speed limits, a minimum age for riders, better infrastructure and so on.
Reputable escooter firms who have made investments in the UK may well feel frustrated that progress has been so slow. Opponents of escooters might also believe that the experience both here and abroad shows they are either too dangerous – or people just not sensible enough – ever to be a permanent fixture on our roads (and, all too often, our pavements).
With around 18 months until the likely date for the next general election, there is time for the government to make its mind up. More likely, the issue will be kicked down the proverbial road, leaving those of us on the actual road in a difficult and potentially dangerous position.