The government wants to introduce legislation regarding the use of electric scooters, saying they have gone unregulated for too long.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, however, told MPs on the transport committee that no new rules would be introduced in this parliament.

“We have no parliamentary time in this session nor any relevant bill that could be used to regulate electric scootersbut we will seek to legislate,” she said. “It’s clearly necessary.”

She added: “It’s not enough to stay in this situation for too long. »

THE The previous Conservative government pledged to legalize electric scooters in 2022but since then, progress has stalled.

A series of shared electric scooter trials in England has been extended several times.

Figures collated by Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK) show the trials have been very successful, with millions of users making almost 48 million journeys since they began in July 2020.

However, safety concerns have been raised about their use, with accident data released by the Department for Transport (DfT) in September last year, showing an increase in the number of deaths.

There were 1,402 collisions involving e-scooters in 2022, up from 1,352 the previous year.

There were also 12 deaths in collisions involving e-scooters, including 11 e-scooter drivers, up from 10 in 2021.

The DfT says its best estimate, after adjusting for changes in police reports, is that there were 440 seriously injured and 1,040 lightly injured in collisions involving e-scooters, compared to 418 and 1,006 respectively in 2021.

However, research from CoMoUK, the UK’s national shared transport charity, suggests that serious safety incidents are rare, with just one accident per 500,000 journeys.

Haigh says there has been a lot of interest from local authorities in developing more e-scooter trails and that they can play a “really effective” role in an integrated transport strategy.

“It makes it easier for people with accessibility needs to travel, but there are definitely issues…and I think we need to look very carefully at the journeys they replace and the behavioral impact of scooters electric,” she added.

“We will make sure, in the second round of testing, that we properly evaluate and take all of this into account.”

CoMoUK welcomed Haigh’s comments which recognize the role e-scooters can play in an integrated transport strategy and that the Government intends to legislate for e-scooters when there is parliamentary time.

Richard Dilks, chief executive of CoMoUK, said: “The Transport Secretary’s recognition that it is time to move towards legalizing e-scooters is great news and we look forward to her announcing the next steps.

“Legalization is the only way to develop and sustain the impressive popularity of shared e-scooter trials over the long term, as well as the only way to have a clear and secure definition of private e-scooters and their use.

“In this way, ministers can give this cheap, flexible and green mode of transport a long-term future, contributing to growth and decarbonisation.

“We know we need to move people away from using private cars, and e-scooters are one mode of transport that can help achieve this, ideally as part of an integrated and sustainable transport offer. »

A new report published today by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) calls for the development of mandatory technical requirements for all electric scooters sold in the European Union to replace the current patchwork of national requirements and voluntary standards.

The standards should include a speed limiter set at 20 km/h (12.4 mph) as well as requirements for stability, minimum braking and maximum acceleration, according to the ETSC.

The researchers recommend that national governments set a minimum age of 16 for e-scooter riders, a mandatory helmet requirement, and a ban on riding after consuming alcohol or drugs or riding with passengers.

In national data from European countries, researchers found 119 road deaths in 2022 in crashes involving “motorized micro-mobility devices” – a category of personal light electric vehicles dominated by electric scooters, but which also includes rarer vehicles such as electric unicycles.

Although this figure is increasing compared to previous years, this may simply be due to the increase in the number of e-scooter users.

Researchers are calling for more data on the use of electric scooters to better understand the risk levels, which some previous analyzes have shown are higher than for cycling.

Some existing EU product regulations apply to electric scooters, for example rules covering machines and batteries. However, there is no single mandatory standard for electric scooters covering factors such as stability, maximum speed and braking performance.

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