ESC0073

Written evidence submitted by the London Road Safety Council.

The London Road Safety Council’s Members are the Capital’s 33 Local Authorities with each of these bodies having space for an elected member and an officer representative on the Council.

The Council seeks to support road casualty reductions in London. It provides a forum for members to share best practice, provides training for Elected Members and borough officers and creates education, training and publicity campaign materials for use by its members.

Member authorities were asked to consider the call for evidence and to submit views to the Council.  Even though most of our member authorities are currently extremely busy coordinating their local Covid-19 response, two authorities found time to respond and submitted their views.  Their responses can be found below.

Member representing Merton:

In my opinion there should be relaxation of the total ban on these. In the moves to decarbonise and move away from petrol power I think there is still a need for personal mobility.

There has already been a large increase in human powered scooters at primary schools to help parents get children to school quickly, without a car, but also allowing for rapid onward travel to transport hubs for work.

For many people who aren’t quite so healthy or face inclines, longer journeys etc. then I think a e-scooter is a viable alternative. I had a test go on one at a conference last year and I was impressed. I think it is worth the DfT doing experiments/field trials to see what or how they should be allowed. In my opinion in London they should be allowed on cycle paths/shared paths but not standard pavements as this could be a danger to very young people, elderly, blind etc. I think where users are competent and wearing a helmet and knee/shoulder pads and gloves they should be able to go on the road, especially cycle/bus lanes.

In terms of specification, I think this needs testing by the DfT, but in general I think these should be speed limited to 15mph. I think any faster would feel too quick for something that requires good balance and control to handle. Also, I think if they are to go on the road then they should have fixed front/rear lights and users encouraged to have reflective/body-warn lights as we’d expect for cyclists.

Overall, I think as councils/government move against cars and many new flats and homes having no right to parking, they should be encouraging viable alternatives, such as e-bikes and e-scooters. This is something I will be advocating in Merton, though the current administration doesn’t want to help people modal-shift in such ways, they only want to penalise car ownership instead.

Member representing Hackney:

In regard to "evidence" the problem we have is that due to the newness of the issue and delays in getting statistics we don't really have it. We would ask what evidence there is in support of legalising them though. Happy to comment on our experiences with regard to scooters as below using the questions asked:

• whether the legislation for e-scooters is up to date and appropriate; - Needs to be clearer regarding legality
• to what extent e-scooters have positive benefits, for instance relating to congestion and promoting more sustainable forms of transport; - While they may have moved some people off public transport, from observational evidence (of users) the users of scooters are not likely to have shifted from private car use and cycling is a viable alternative.
• where in the urban environment e-scooters could be used (e.g. road, pavement, cycle lanes), and how this could impact on other road users and pedestrians, including people who have visual impairments or use mobility aids; - Due to motorisation and speeds achievable scooters should not use pedestrianised areas or shared lanes. A particular danger to those with impairments, the elderly and children. Cycle lanes are a possibility.
• whether there should be advice or compulsory requirements to use specific safety equipment when using an e-scooter; - I believe that any road/cycle lane user (including cyclists) should be subject to a highway code theory test and expected to be able to produce evidence of this as with drivers in the event of an incident or as part of routine police enforcement. With regard to safety equipment they should be regarded as a P2W.
• whether there should be safety and environmental regulation for the build of e-scooters, and what this might entail; and - Any regulation in the build of low CC P2Ws should apply
• the experience of other countries where e-scooters are legal on the roads -Not escooter studies, but research in the Netherlands regarding the impact of ebikes and the resulting injuries to riders and pedestrians due to increased speeds needs to be taken into account, particularly as while recent observations of the riders of scooters in East London is that the majority are in the 15-30 years age range, legalised use and increasing popularity may lead to older users who can sustain greater long term injury and require more medical care.

June 2020