‘Let’s please see some enforcement to discourage illegal usage of e-scooters’

• WILL Norman has been London’s cycling and walking commissioner since 2016.

On the subject of legalising electric e-scooters he was recently quoted as saying: “The police are going to continue enforcing against the private ones, which are still illegal.”

At present just a couple of dozen towns and boroughs have authorised official e-scooter rental experiments. Their trialists must have a valid driving licence which, by definition, precludes anyone under the age of 16.

Currently all riders who are not on an official rented e-scooter are liable to a £300 fine and six points on their driving licence.

Someone should tell the councils and our police. How many prosecutions have there been?

Every day I see dozens of privately owned e-scooters on the road and pavement, some at speeds far in excess of the proposed 12.5mph limit.

You even see some carefree parents with young children aboard ferrying them to and from school. Have they not seen the depth of our roads’ potholes compared with their tiny wheels?

A study of US e-scooter-related injuries and hospital admissions found nearly one-third of the patients suffered head trauma “more than twice the rate of head injuries to bicyclists”.

Research by Transport for London found that e-scooters could be 100 times more dangerous than bicycles.

There’s a fig-leaf argument from the rental companies that maybe some of the journeys would replace cars or the road. The reality is that, mostly, they replace walking or cycling – with no fitness benefit whatsoever.

Add to this the terrorising of pedestrians and the experience of rental e-scooters cluttering the pavements that’s become the bane of Paris and US cities.

Surely we could, and should, learn lessons from the early-adopter cities that have let rental e-scooters run rife?

When the British trials are being evaluated after March 2022 we should say “thanks, but no thanks” and decide
not to proceed with legalising e-scooters.

In the interim let’s please see some enforcement to discourage illegal usage.

PAUL BRAITHWAITE
Bartholomew Villas, NW5