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Scooting up a storm
A perfect storm is brewing in towns and cities up and down the UK. Step-on batterypowered e-scooters have exploded in popularity amidst a morass of worries about safety and regulation – together with mixed messages from the authorities. BDN takes a look at what’s going on – and how it might affect the motorcycle trade, for good or ill
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veryone has a story about e-scooters nowadays. Your mother-in-law nearly knocked one down driving along the local bypass the other night. The postman has to dodge them every day on the pavement. Your barber almost got in a fight after being cheeked by a gang of kids riding them outside his shop. And, of course, you’ve seen them yourself – two-up, weaving through traffic, crashing through red lights, bumping up on the pavement. They’re new and have exploded in popularity since last year’s Covid-19 lockdowns, with people looking for new ways to get about in urban environments without using crowded, possibly infected buses, trains, trams and tubes. As part of the so-called ‘micro-mobility revolution’, they have a lot to offer – in theory at least. Having a zeroemissions (in use), efficient, b a t t e r y p o w e r e d e le c t r ic vehicle that can move
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JULY 2021
commuters the last few miles between work or home and a train station makes a lot of sense. It’s certainly a better option than one person driving a massive Chelsea tractor. You can ride to your local suburban train station, fold your scooter up, take it on the train to Waterloo or
As part of the socalled ‘micro-mobility revolution’, they have a lot to offer – in theory at least Waverley station, then unfold it, ride the three or four miles to the office and recharge it under your desk. Then at home time, do it all again, in reverse. Advances in rechargeable battery technology, compact high-power motors, and Chinese mass production means that a fairly light step-on scooter can be made and sold for as little as £400. The cheapest models are less than £200. But there are, it seems, fundamental problems with the design. As Dean Clements of Clements Moto points out, the small wheels
and a top speed of around 15mph means that e-scooters aren’t really suitable for use either on the road or on the pavement. “My main reservation about the step-on-scooter, beyond the legality, is how and where it is used,” Clements told us. “The product isn’t conducive to mixing with either pedestrians or cars.” As Clements points out, there is a possible answer in the form of the cycle lane network – but it’s not good enough in the UK at the moment. “At present the only safe place I see them being used is in cycle lanes, of which we have far too few.” But it’s the vague government regulation of e-scooters that seems to be causing most problems. On the one hand, the law is clear: private use of e-scooters is illegal in public places – parks, roads, pavements, cycle lanes, pedestrian shopping areas – and anyone doing so is committing a crime. In the UK, a powered vehicle and its user needs to comply with a whole range of laws around insurance, MOT testing, road tax, construction and use regulations, registration plates and licensing. There’s a loophole around electrically assisted pedal cycles or e-bikes which legally can only ‘assist’ a rider with 250 watts of extra power while they are pedalling, at speeds
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