E Scooters soon to be allowed on UK roads?

That may be true in some areas, but it does depend where you live.

In most towns, the Police will happily slap you with 6 points on your licence and a £300 fine for using one,
or at the very least, take it off you:

The other point you are missing is that the vast majority of people won’t people won’t do something if it is illegal.

Riding one is illegal and therefore that fact alone probably stops 90% of ordinary people who would otherwise use one.

For most people, the threat of 6 points, a £300 fine, and having their several hundred quid scooter taken off them makes it a totally unacceptable risk to ride one. It certainly does for me.

Conclusion: If the law is changed, I think we we see an explosion in the use of these scooters. Everything from kids going to school on them to people commuting.

I personally think anything that allows people to move around urban areas quickly, cheaply and relatively quietly is a good thing.

Finally!! And I really hope 'fast tracked' means 'we're re-writing the law as we speak.' Though I'm sure it doesn't sadly.

The fact that e-bikes are legal while e-scooters are illegal is absurd, when essentially the same rules can be applied to both. These are a fantastically usable means of transport for short journeys.

And if they legalise them but then kill them with requirements for insurance, helmets etc that would be equally ridiculous, unless the same is to apply to bikes.

Nice opportunity for the government to earn a few extra quid on the side.

The thing about insurance, especially in the current situation, is it's a friction point that will discourage take up. The rational behind legalising them is to ease the pressure on public transport as restrictions are lifted. Adding a friction point like insurance would hinder that.

Added to which, e-bikes, and to be fair, purely pedal powered bikes are well capable of similar speeds, and do not require insurance cover. What makes the scooters different?

Not sure theft insurance needs to be a legal requirement though. It's not even a legal requirement for cars! That's just up to the individual's assessment of risk.

From what I've observed locally, very few commuting cyclists ride at the speed attainable by the electric scooter I saw. However, if approaching 30 mph on a scooter is possible then it's not far off a moped's capabilities.

Are the safety risks any different? Should the licensing / insurance / test requirements be any different?

Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not against them at all and one would suit me perfectly for getting around town. I just feel that there ought to be consideration of all the impacts of introducing a new form of motorised transport to the UK's streets.

normal pedal cycles are involved in more incidents. whether that's because of more cyclists and/or worse behaviour i don't know. more laws aren't the answer, but i'd like to see a little more policing to remind some people of how to behave on pavements. For new devices i think registration/licencing might be considered, esp as they're likely to get faster.

Also, why does "licencing" get highlighted for spelling?

I have a Ninebot max.



Happily gets my fat ass to 18+mph on level ground. It’s not bad going up hills either considering the mass it has to shift. (I’m several stone over the max weight limit)

No issues legally where I live and I’ve even had the police laughing at me. I bought it to help with the one mile walk to the train station for my commute. I do hear you all shouting “walk it fatty” which is all well and good but it gets to 40C and up in the mornings and anyone walking that would break into a sweat.

Not managed the commute yet due to lock down but have taken my kids for bike rides.

Surprised to see someone on a motoring forum looking forward to a vast increase in 10-15mph vehicles on the road. Particularly when the users will be untrained, unlicensed, and uninsured.

I’m in the US and my commute will takes me to the Empire State Building. A friend has one similar which takes him from midtown to Wall Street. He uses the bike paths on the West Side highway for most of it.

Because it's not about what I want. It's about people being able to move around urban areas easily.
Driving in cities and even many town centres will be come increasingly pointless and legislated against anyway.

If I'm being honest, I only tend to drive in city centres for one of the following reasons:

a) I'm cruising about the streets in a Porsche/Lambo/other silly car, on an evening or weekend, and essentially just having fun at whatever speed the traffic is crawling at, before parking outside a bar/restaurant for the evening and then going home.

b) I'm in that particular city for work, visiting friends, or browsing the shops and attractions, and the public transport links insufficient so I have to use a car to get there.


I live outside the city but with good train links, so I tend to use trains/tubes/trams whenever I can for work.

If I'm actually doing any driving for fun, or going a long distance, it will be in out of town areas where the speed limit is 40-70mph and there won't be anyone on a 15mph scooter and very few cyclists, so they won't bother me.

Things change. I'm happy to roll with the changes, whatever they may be.

I absolutely love cars, but I'm fully aware that we all need to adapt to change, and at a quicker pace than has probably ever been seen in 50 years or so, and if that means my urban driving being affected or 'slowed down' by more cyclists and scooters then so be it.