Walking around the streets of London, especially those of central London, can be no easy task at the best of times. With the capital having a population of almost 9 million people and visiting tourists adding a further 20 million plus to that figure each year, it’s no surprise that traffic jams of the pedestrian type are an everyday occurrence in and around the most visited parts of our great metropolis.
Whether walking on bustling pavements or quieter backstreets, we can usually navigate around other pedestrians without getting injured.
However, since the Covid years, you’ll have noticed a relatively new member of the ‘pedestrian-not-pedestrian’ community. It’s one that’s not welcomed by those who think, heaven forfend, that the pavement is for pedestrians. Say ‘hello’ to the electric scooter or e-scooter (although we suspect most people reading this have already exchanged pleasantries).
E-scooters in their various forms have been around for some years, yet they remain an anomaly. Although it’s perfectly legal to buy an e-scooter, you can only use it on private land and then only with the landowner’s permission. You can’t ride one on the road, in a cycle lane or on the pavement.
So how does this square with the fact that e-scooters have now become an everyday sight on the roads of towns throughout England?
As the country started to emerge from the third national Covid lockdown of 2021, the Government decided it was an ideal time to bring forward its plans to run e-scooter trials in selected towns and cities throughout England and Wales. Easing pressure on public transport, whilst the threat posed by Covid was still high, was a significant factor in the early rollout of the scheme.
The trials are run by licenced operators working with local authorities. Originally the idea was that the trials would run until the end of March 2022. They were extended on two further occasions. Then, in July 2022, it was announced trials could be extended until May 2024 , if the relevant local authorities decided to take up the option.
What are the pros and cons of e-scooters?
The appeal of electric scooters is manyfold. For instance, they are a relatively low-maintenance, healthy and green way of getting around towns and cities. They don’t add to traffic congestion, and they don’t emit toxic gases.
In many instances, they can traverse town centres much more quickly than taking the same route by car.
There is also factual evidence to support the assertion that they are safer than bikes when ridden on the road.
Where there are pros, there are invariably cons, and we’ve highlighted some of these below:
- There are numerous safety-related issues to be resolved concerning the safety of riders, other road users, and members of the public. For instance, whilst the Government recommends that safety helmets are worn, it’s not compulsory.
Speed limits for e-scooters, the question of whether e-scooters should be required to have third-party insurance or not, whether prospective riders should be required to have a pre-purchase riding proficiency test before purchasing a scooter; all these and more concerns need addressing before the use of privately owned e-scooters becomes legalised.
2. E-scooters hired through local authority trial schemes are often left dumped on the pavement instead of taken to official’ parking stations’. Several charities have raised concerns about the hazards e-scooters left on the pavement pose to blind, partially sighted, disabled and vulnerable pedestrians.
3. Many people genuinely worry about being hit by an e-scooter on the pavement and with good cause. E-scooters legally hired from local authority trial schemes have their top speed capped at 12.5 mph, but privately owned e-scooters can go much faster.
Either way, a collision between an e-scooter and a pedestrian is unlikely to end well, particularly for the latter, as injury lawyers around the country are already finding out.
In May 2022, a young girl from Derby suffered a broken leg after being hit by an e-scooter on the pavement whilst walking home from school. The rider stopped briefly to apologise before carrying on with her journey.
Tragically in June 2022, a 71 year old woman from Nottinghamshire, became the first known person to die from a collision on the pavement with an e-scooter ridden by a 14-year old boy whose father had purchased the scooter for his son just six days earlier.
So, what do the statistics say about reported road casualties involving e-scooters
The latest government figures on reported casualties involving e-scooters reveal that there were 1434 reported accidents involving e-scooters in which injury was sustained to one or more parties to the accident. Of these, 229 involved injuries to pedestrians. The data doesn’t tell us how many of these accidents involved pedestrians who were walking on pavements instead of, say, crossing the road at the time of the accident.
How do we stop e-scooter riders from using the pavement?
There are no easy solutions, but here are our thoughts:
- Estimates suggest there are well over a million privately owned electric scooters on the streets of the UK.
- Even when they are legally on the road under one of the many trial schemes currently in force, riding e-scooters on the pavement is never legal.
- Some experts believe that education, enforcement, geofencing (e.g., by an automatic switching off of a scooter’s motor when it goes onto a pavement) and better urban planning all have a role to play in discouraging e-scooter riders from riding on pavements.
- Whilst the current status quo is maintained whereby e-scooter trials are extended without the introduction of new legislation to address the issue of how to legalise the use of privately owned e-scooters and, at the same time, get to grips with the safety and logistical issues that surround this topic, it’s hard to see how the problem of e-scooters on pavements is likely to be solved.
In the Queen’s Speech of May 2022, the Government announced plans to expand the legal use of e-scooters in the ‘coming year’. So far, nothing has happened in this regard, whilst extensions to the trials continue unabated.
5. E-scooters are here to stay and in the right hands, used legally and sensibly, they have many attractive features. However, whilst not wishing to either over or underplay the illegal use of e-scooters on the pavements of London or elsewhere, until this issue is appropriately and adequately addressed, it will continue to adversely colour many people’s views about e-scooters.
