E Scooters soon to be allowed on UK roads?

[emicen]

heebeegeetee said:

Yes, that's a good point. This guy's scooter was a Pure, seemed a big thing to me.

Also - I was in Spain earlier this year, I see escooters are sold in stores, so I guess they're legal there. However we did also see police stopping scooter riders too. I don't know what the law is in Spain or Europe.

One other thing we frequently notice though is the numbers of police we see when in Europe, in direct contrast to UK.

I'm not sure people's legal or reasonable activities should be curtailed just because the Conservative govt have decided to greatly reduce/remove police from our streets.

I was in Palma a few weekends back. There was a quite noticeable demarkation.

What I assume to be legal ones, ridden at sensible speed, usually with helmet and a highvis
Sam Browne style belt.

Then the other ones, ridden like a bat out of hell, no helmet, no high vis, no concept of slowing down when passing people or dogs etc on the seafront.

[Gareth79]

lancslad58 said:

heebeegeetee said:

Again, from the evidence of my peepers, particularly in my part of the UK, food delivery riders aside there are almost no young people riding bicycles in or around Birmingham, so I'm going to surprised if the numbers of young cyclists have reduced further - we-re certainly in the science of low numbers here.

Given that escooters can obviously travel further distances in shorter time, I'd be surprised to see they're replacing walking journeys completely - I'm sure there's a figure of the average urban walk, I doubt it's that long.

However I can imagine that escooters may well be replacing walking in conjunction with public transport. It is important imo that escooters are not categorised as active travel, 'cos they're not really.

Coincidentally I was on a train with an escooter user last night, the conversation was mostly about the fact he's not allowed on the train with it, and the fun and games he has with dodging drivers or inspectors who are supposed to keep him off. It's to do with Lith batteries apparently, yet the two ebikes that me and my mate had with us are allowed.

Anyway just as he was leaving he said the scooters saving him £500 a month, but we didn't get chance to find out how.

Probably car prking charges at the station, too far/slow too walk there

Yup, e-scooters would make train travel viable for a much greater number of people. If you live (say) 2 miles from a station it's either a long walk, expensive car parking, or you cycle and risk it being stolen/stripped, getting sweaty etc. Scooter is 1/5th of the time, you can take it with you to use at the other end too.

[bigothunter]

Gareth79 said:

Yup, e-scooters would make train travel viable for a much greater number of people. If you live (say) 2 miles from a station it's either a long walk, expensive car parking, or you cycle and risk it being stolen/stripped, getting sweaty etc. Scooter is 1/5th of the time, you can take it with you to use at the other end too.

Is there enough room in crowded commuter trains for lots of scooters?

[RizzoTheRat]

Presumably they take up a bit less space than a folding bicycle.

[lancslad58]

bigothunter said:

Gareth79 said:

Yup, e-scooters would make train travel viable for a much greater number of people. If you live (say) 2 miles from a station it's either a long walk, expensive car parking, or you cycle and risk it being stolen/stripped, getting sweaty etc. Scooter is 1/5th of the time, you can take it with you to use at the other end too.

Is there enough room in crowded commuter trains for lots of scooters?

Yes thay fold up.No worse than carrying a golf umberella

[andburg]

guess that depends on the scooter, the little xiaomi things sure but the "legal" ones no

[808 Estate]

emicen said:

I was in Palma a few weekends back. There was a quite noticeable demarkation.

What I assume to be legal ones, ridden at sensible speed, usually with helmet and a highvis
Sam Browne style belt.

Then the other ones, ridden like a bat out of hell, no helmet, no high vis, no concept of slowing down when passing people or dogs etc on the seafront.

I was in Barcelona recently and noticed the same thing. Scooters being ridden sensibly by people with appropriate safety gear and obeying traffic signals and crossing lights. The exceptionally wide pavements there obviously help and a lot of the cycle paths are part of the pavement and not part of the road system.

[Graveworm]

808 Estate said:

emicen said:

I was in Palma a few weekends back. There was a quite noticeable demarkation.

What I assume to be legal ones, ridden at sensible speed, usually with helmet and a highvis
Sam Browne style belt.

Then the other ones, ridden like a bat out of hell, no helmet, no high vis, no concept of slowing down when passing people or dogs etc on the seafront.

I was in Barcelona recently and noticed the same thing. Scooters being ridden sensibly by people with appropriate safety gear and obeying traffic signals and crossing lights. The exceptionally wide pavements there obviously help and a lot of the cycle paths are part of the pavement and not part of the road system.

https://www.elnacional.cat/en/news/99-of-e-scooters-in-barcelona-exceed-the-speed-limit-in-pavement-bike-lanes_1104933_102.html

https://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/1...

Helmets, hi viz (at night) lights, insurance and certificate of ownership are all mandatory in Barcelona...

Edited by Graveworm on Friday 19th April 14:14

[Shnozz]

As I said previously, the U.K. representative is those willing to flaunt the laws in that it’s illegal to use them. It’s therefore unsurprising that the same people ride them like dicks. If you had a true cross section of society using them then you’d have a truer reflection of responsible riding versus tt riding.

[Graveworm]

Shnozz said:

As I said previously, the U.K. representative is those willing to flaunt the laws in that it’s illegal to use them. It’s therefore unsurprising that the same people ride them like dicks. If you had a true cross section of society using them then you’d have a truer reflection of responsible riding versus tt riding.

The evidence comes from the rest of the world where they are legal to use, it was available before the UK pilots and was referenced by the committee that proposed them,; that's why they have had pilot schemes, in the hope that the UK would show something different. There are potential benefits, vested interests and anecdotal opinions but the empirical and objective evidence is that those potential benefits are not realised and there are real downsides. They are understandably reluctant to commit resources and parliamentary time based on hope over experience/evidence.