MICROMOBILITY
THE FUTURE IS HERE
As debate around e-scooter safety persists, BikeBiz editor Alex Ballinger shares his thoughts on why the bike trade should embrace emerging modes of transport
Why should bike shops care about e-scooters? It’s a question I (and many others in the bike trade) have been pondering for some time now. From what I can see, the attitude of bike retailers
towards electric scooters is mostly disinterested, and in some cases hostile, but I believe there is a strong case for the bike industry to embrace the emerging trend. Where I live in Reading, in Berkshire, it’s already clear that consumers are adopting privately-owned e-scooters even before legislation catches up. While it may be tempting to dismiss current e-scooter riders as delinquents flouting the law, a closer look reveals the users are also commuters and parents, all eager to get out of the car and move more cheaply, efficiently and more sustainably. Safety appears to be the most important factor for hostile attitudes towards e-scooters, and while there are extremely valid causes for concern around the risks associated with electric scooters, the criticism is often misplaced. Pavement riding, for example, is perhaps the most common complaint I hear from naysayers. Pavement riding is not an issue exclusive to e-scooters (there are plenty of bikes on pavements in my local area), nor is it simply a case of riders willfully flouting the rules.
42 | June 2023
Instead, pavement riding is a symptom of insufficient infrastructure for any vehicle that isn’t a car or lorry. Both bike and e-scooter users would benefit hugely from the widespread introduction of segregated cycle lanes in towns and cities, and the ever-growing demand for e-scooters could be the catalyst to a truly transformed road network in this country (much like the one we hoped for during Covid lockdowns). What many e-scooter critics fail to see is that bike riders and e-scooter users share many similarities - most notably in both being vulnerable road users, and both making a positive decision to ditch the car. Excessive speed is another valid criticism of privately- owned e-scooters, as we routinely see news stories about scooters capable of mind-boggling speeds. But this issue is in part down to the Government dragging its heels on e-scooter legislation. Currently, privately-owned e-scooters are not permitted on public roads.
The Government has begun planning to introduce a new vehicle category for low-speed, zero-emission machines that would see e-scooters legislated in a similar fashion to e-bikes, with strict maximum power and speed limits, but there has been no update from the Government in many months on this.
App-based rental scooters have also been popping up around the country since 2020, as part of Government- approved trials, aimed at generating safety data to inform future legislation.
If the Government does finally introduce this legislation, this will allow police and other authorities to make focussed efforts on targeting overpowered and speeding e-scooters, rather than the current situation, which would require police officers to apprehend every e-scooter rider they see (which would no doubt take every hour of their shift based on current usage). The bike industry has often been slow to adopt new
technologies (anyone remember the anti-e-bike brigade?), but at a time when the need to reduce congestion on the roads and emissions, hostility towards new sustainable modes of transport for the sake of it is not an option. Instead it’s important to see e-scooters for what they are - a new sustainable option in the transport mix, that can help reduce the number of cars on the road, encourage more safe infrastucture, and maybe even offer some sales to those retailers willing to take the plunge.
www.bikebiz.com
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