“The scooter was coming down the road at about 20 or 30mph on the pavement and then bang … he hit my daughter,” said Ashe Medforth.
Two years ago, Medforth was parking up his electric cargo bike, which he rode with his five-year-old daughter, Holly, in north London when the collision happened.
“Luckily she had a helmet on, because there was a massive hole in it. It protected her head,” he said. Holly was screaming as the impact had fractured her ribs but the rider was unrepentant. “The guy gets up and starts threatening me to go to the cashpoint to pay for his scooter repair,” Medforth said.
Holly was far from alone. Government data shows that in 2022, there were 1,402 collisions involving e-scooters in Great Britain and 12 deaths caused as a result. E-scooter riders bear the brunt of this. Eleven of the 12 people killed were riders, as were 1,106 of the 1,446 people injured. Last June, Linda Davis was killed after a 14-year-old boy collided with her while riding a private e-scooter on the pavement. She is thought to be the first pedestrian killed in an e-scooter collision in the UK. The boy later received a 12-month referral order.
Heralded by some as the future of transport when first introduced, e-scooters are now known for cluttering up pavements and for antisocial behaviour. In the UK, sentiment towards them has soured. According to a survey carried out by the National Accident Helpline, 60% of Britons say e-scooters should be banned from public roads.
There is speculation that next month’s king’s speech will classify e-scooters as a new class of vehicle, sitting somewhere between a car and an e-bike, which for many in the sector would be a gamechanger.
Last month, Paris bid adieu to rented e-scooters. The French capital is not alone in parting ways: Brussels is expected to scale back the number available to rent in the city from 20,000 to 8,000 in January. After four years of continuous growth, e-scooter ridership in Europe fell for the first time this spring, by 10%.
Meanwhile, the UK e-scooter industry is in disarray. Private e-scooters have been banished after barely enforced laws that banned them from use on roads were suddenly and stringently enforced during the pandemic. Ride-share e-scooters are faring better as the government has legalised their use on roads, but they are stuck in perpetual one-year trials that leads to the constant swapping of operators across the country.
“The only people left riding private e-scooters at the moment are either petty criminals or kids,” said Mark Shaffer, founder of the E-Scooter Defence Fund, a group that advocates for people who are prosecuted for using private e-scooters.
E-scooters are classed as motor vehicles by the government, meaning riders need to have a licence, insurance and tax to ride them on roads. It is not currently possible to obtain insurance for privately owned e-scooters. Those caught riding one without insurance and the correct licence face a £300 fine and six points. For new drivers who have passed their test in the past two years, six points would lead to their licence being revoked.
“Scoot-fever” has not quite taken over Westminster but some moves to woo parliamentarians and civil servants have been made. One ride-share provider, Tier, has given MPs and Lords e-scooter lessons. Last year, Voi, the UK’s largest ride-share e-scooter operator, sponsored a reception and a report about women’s safety for the all-parliamentary group on women in transport. One Department for Transport adviser was given a signed Usain Bolt helmet on behalf of a failed e-scooter company set up by the sprinter.
Matthew Pencharz, the head of policy for UK, Ireland and the Netherlands for Voi Technology, said e-scooters were the pushbikes of the 21st century. “It’s a controversial new form of transport. I’m sure when pushbikes first arrived on the streets in the 19th century, people got stressed,” he said.
Voi accounts for more than half of all e-scooter rides in the UK. Despite being in a better position than its private counterparts, there is still frustration about the regulatory purgatory e-scooters are under. “We need to move beyond intention to legislate,” he said.
The government said it had not yet made a decision on whether to extend ride-share e-scooter trials beyond May 2024.
E-scooters have passionate champions and detractors, but among them there is almost uniform agreement that the government needs to legislate and regulate them.
Medforth founded a campaign, Just Put a Reg On It, which advocates on behalf of the parents of children who are seriously injured or hospitalised by an e-scooter. They want all e-scooters to have registration plates.
Pure Electric, a UK-based manufacturer and retailer of private e-scooters, opened for business in 2018. Last July it closed all but one of its shops, opting instead to sell its products through other retailers.
Adam Norris, the chief executive of Pure Electric, said: “Why do so many people ride them illegally? The answer is the benefits are so strong and there is no other alternative.”
As well as saving the planet, Norris believes e-scooters can save lives. “A very smart individual said to me: ‘Wow, that’s gonna save a lot of lives.’ I said: ‘Yeah, because we’re gonna cut pollution’ and he goes: ‘No, you missed it Adam. Do you know the number of people currently in the world with depression and suicide who die due to loneliness. You’re gonna save people killing themselves because you’re giving them a way to get around which is so affordable and easy,’” he said.
Apart from the Netherlands, the UK is the only country in Europe that has not legalised e-scooters. Norris said the legislative pace towards legalising was “embarrassing”.
But even as the venture capital behind many rental firms dries up, local authorities still want a piece of the pie. When choosing operators, some authorities ask for a flat fee while others say they want a share in revenues. The latter is now the preferred option for local authorities. The trade publication Zag Daily reported that the operator Lime pulled out of Essex county council’s e-scooter tender process because sharing revenue with the authority would not be financially viable. Lime also withdrew from a tender for the West of England combined authority, which covers Bristol.
The Department for Transport estimated that e-scooter trials across the country had led to a total reduction of between 269 and 348 tonnes of CO2 by December 2021 and said they had replaced car journeys 21% of the time.
But Medforth argues that the manufacturing process of e-scooters and the need to have at least a provisional driving licence to ride one undercuts their environmental benefits.
“There is a huge manufacturing process. Unless e-scooters are being used by a car owner to offset actual carbon-producing miles, they are not good for the environment,” he said.
• This article was amended on 31 October 2023 to make clear that Lime withdrew from tender processes for Essex county council and the West of England combined authority, rather than from deals with these local authorities.
