Inside the industry: Are e-scooters the answer to urban mobility?

Later this year, a bill will be introduced to make e-scooters legal to use on the UK’s roads. If it follows a typical course, it will take about eight months to pass into law, from where consultation will begin prior to regulations being drafted to make it happen. That process could take years but is expected to be fast-tracked. It seems likely that as a minimum today’s trials by selected local authorities using hire scooters run by established players from other markets will be extended nationally. The rest is up for debate, such as whether helmets should be mandatory, whether scooters should emit an audible warning, what licencing and insurance might be required, what speed limits should apply, whether they can ride on pavements or just roads and whether privately owned scooters should be permitted. It’s a minefield that needs clearing fast; as anyone who has encountered an e-scooter being ridden badly can testify, a misused one can be dangerous to users and the public Why, then, allow them at all? Because estimates suggest more than one million e-scooters have already been sold in the UK, despite being illegal if used on anywhere other than private land. Pandora’s Box has been opened; regulation is the only way forward. If we’re happy to share our roads with bikes (and e-bikes) running to likely considerably laxer rules, why would we resist? Certainly the fact we’re slow out of the starting blocks in allowing them means we can draw on plenty of evidence that e-scooters can provide societal and environmental benefits. After a year of Paris running a trial scheme back in 2018, it was estimated that 12 million rides had been taken, replacing 1.2m car journeys and stopping 330 tonnes of CO2 entering the atmosphere. Since then, a mish-mash of studies has detailed how those numbers have ramped up, as well as anecdotal tales of roads becoming less congested. That’s not to say there aren’t downsides. A study last year of an ongoing trial in the west of England revealed that 44% of e-scooter users had replaced a journey they would otherwise have made by foot, for instance, while there have been multiple reports of deaths and injuries, albeit by some measures at a lower rate than for motorcycle users. Like it or loathe it, e-mobility in many shapes and forms is here to stay. E-scooters are validated by the climate emergency but with the potential, if implemented carefully and embraced enthusiastically, to improve all of our lives, whether we ride one or not.