E-scooters for hire on Ladbroke Grove
As some of you may already know, the long-heralded trial of rental e-scooters in the six central London boroughs is likely to start next week. There will be a big press launch and the trial is planned to last a year.
There will be three companies renting out scooters, each with its own distinctive livery. Anybody planning to rent a scooter will have to register with the company (via a smartphone app) with payment details and will need to show that they have a driving licence.Scooters will – like Boris bikes – need to be picked up and left in authorised parking places. Initially, 15 are planned in the borough, including one outside St John’s church in Ladbroke Grove and another by Ladbroke Grove station (the Council will put a full list on its website). As payment will be by time period, and people will go on having money collected off their card until they have returned their scooter to an authorised parking slot, there will be a strong incentive not to leave them lying about on the street. The scooters will have a maximum speed limit of 15.5 mph and can only be used on the roadway or in cycle lanes.
All the scooters will have very visible number plates and will also be GPS tracked. So if anybody reports misuse (e.g. riding on the pavement), or if there is a collision with another road user, the company will be able to identify the scooter by its location so that appropriate action can be taken against offenders. For more information go to the RBKC website page escooters
It will remain illegal to ride non-authorised scooters on either road or pavement and here is a message received from our ward Sargent, Jason May on Friday regarding the position, along with some enforcement action that the local Safer Neighbourhood teams have taken: ‘Yesterday our officers seized a total of six scooters between the three wards, including one seized on Notting Hill Gate riding at speed amongst many pedestrians. The E scooters are classed as a Mechanically Propelled vehicle (MPV) and as such require insurance and a driving licence to be used. Insurance companies however currently do not insure E Scooters that are privately owned and therefore if they are being ridden on a pavement or road they are illegal.
Each of the six persons riding the e-scooters were reported for driving not in accordance with a licence, and for riding with no insurance, fined £150 and had their E Scooters seized or crushed. They will attend court in two week's time. We will be focusing on E Scooters and cycling on footpaths one day a week over the coming months.’
Understandably, many are worried about the road safety aspects of the rental E Scooters, and there have been reports of nasty accidents involving unauthorised scooters and pedestrians. There is no doubt, though, that E scooters have the potential to provide a quick, easy and environmentally friendly mode of transport in London – including for some people who find bicycling hard to manage – if the road safety aspects can be sorted out. So it is hard to oppose this trial and they can already be used legally in some other UK and continental cities (including Paris, Berlin and Madrid) and the trial seems to be well-designed to avoid problems as far as possible. Let's see how it goes.
