The findings of wide-ranging research into e-scooter construction standards, designed to help inform potential future Government policy, have been published.
The research project was conducted by TRL and the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), from the University of Warwick, on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT).
The aim of the project was to provide guidance to the DfT on certain aspects of technical regulations that may in future be applied to e-scooters if their use in public places is to be made legal.
Among the key recommendations of the research are that e-scooters should be fitted with a system that limits their maximum speed ‘which cannot be easily defeated’.
To make e-scooters accessible to the greatest range of users and improve their utility to disabled people and people with mobility impairments, future regulation should permit the design, manufacture and sale of e-scooters with (or without) seats and with two or more wheels.
The report also recommends that the Government adopts practical performance-based tests for e-scooter stability based on those currently applied in Germany under the eKFV approval system.
In the eKFV approval scheme, the German authorities have attempted to regulate the stability and controllability of e-scooters using a series of practical tests which are intended to replicate real world riding conditions.
The test has four different test obstacles which must be driven over without losing stability or control such that the direction of travel deviates by more than 20 degrees from the intended path. The test obstacles have been designed to replicate road features that might be encountered in use, such as potholes.
In the UK, while the sale of e-scooters is permitted, it remains illegal to use them on public roads and paths. Rental e-scooter trials are taking place across the country, including in cities such as London.
The report notes that there is ‘no strong case’ to support different technical regulations for rental and privately owned e-scooters.
The report also touches upon the controversial subject on riding on pavements. It says that permitting e-scooters to be used on footways ‘will bring clear accessibility benefits for those with mobility impairments’.
However, it adds that ‘there are legitimate concerns that permitting e-scooters to be ridden on the footway will inevitably bring them into conflict with pedestrians, likely resulting in collisions’.
‘This is of particular concern to groups such as people with visual impairments and older people’, the report notes.
Therefore, the report concludes that ‘careful consideration must therefore be given to the relative merits of facilitating the mobility of some groups at the potential expense of the safety, perceived or real, of others’.
It recommends that, as a minimum, if e-scooters are to be permitted to be ridden on the footway, they should be fitted with a user operated control which limits their maximum speed to 4mph, to be used while they are on the footway.
Other recommendations cover issues such as weight, acceleration and battery requirements.
As a person with a severe mobility impairment I am bewildered and horrified beyond words by the suggestion that “permitting e-scooters to be used on footways will bring clear accessibility benefits for those with mobility impairments”. Already my quality of life, and that of other disabled and elderly people, has been severely damaged by e-scooters (along with e-bikes and pedal bikes) riding illegally on pavements repeatedly traumatising us by repeated near-misses.
We are frightened to go out as this illegal pavement scooter-riding has already rendered pavements increasingly inaccessible to us. It is surely insane, illogical and insulting to suggest that legalising this illegal and dangerous practice would somehow be of benefit to us!
There are already a wide range of mobility scooters available to people with mobility impairments – including me. No need whatsoever to add to the scourge of e-scooters by creating new designs for us – we do not need them or want them. What we do want is enforcement of the existing laws to get them off our pavements (and preferably to ban them)
The focus should be on reclaiming the pavements for people.
Christina Young, Liverpool
+7
The credibility of this report is undermined by several aspects, not limited to:
1. Recommending that limiters should not be “easily” defeated. Why insert “easily”? It is possible to absolutely prohibit tampering which would lock or even wipe software.
2. Recommending that a voluntary button limiting max speed to 4mph would enable riding on pavements. What rider would use it, as they are overtaken by joggers and mobility scooters.
3. Recommending that less mobile persons could use 3-wheeled e-scooters, on pavements, capable of 25km/hr. But, it would make the trip to the pub so much quicker.
4. The stability testing is noddy. It does not reflect the real life use of e-scooters.
5. No mention of permanent integrated lights or integrated horn with loud tone to distinguish from cyclists and give advance notice at speed.
Need I continue?
Paul, Nottingham
+9