FG overtakes Greens in race to legalise e-scooters
THEY are either a plague for road users or an exciting new dawn in urban mobility, but it may be some time before a light is shone on the grey area regarding electric scooters.
And now a split has accelerated between Fine Gael and the Greens over the lethargic progress of Transport Minister Eamon Ryan’s pledge to regulate e-scooters.
The minister plans to make e-scooter owners liable for a raft of new liabilities and charges including dangerous driving, driving under the influence and driving an unroadworthy vehicle.
There are also concerns over whether Mr Ryan will include electric scooters in the motor tax and insurance regimes.
Mr Ryan says that huge complexities surround the process. In a response to queries by Sinn Féin TD Chris Andrews on when the vehicles will be legislated for, as has been done in other countries, Mr Ryan said: ‘The intention is to legislate for e-scooters in accordance with the Programme for Government.’
Amid a backdrop of gathering hostility from cyclist organisations,
Mr Ryan warned that: ‘Work is being carried out in such a way so that it does not undermine the overall framework of road traffic law or road safety in general.’
The minister said: ‘To account for the development of these new vehicles, the road traffic acts are being amended to introduce a new category of vehicle – the proposed title for this new category is “powered personal transporters”. ’
Mr Ryan noted that ‘once the new category has been defined, these vehicles are to be incorporated into the existing legislative framework’.
But he warned that until the new legislation is in place, the use of e-scooters on public roads or in public places will remain illegal.
One Government source warned: ‘The Green’s bosses, the cyclists, do not like these new scooters. They sense that they might have to share their bicycle lanes and some of the Government cash.’
However, the e-scooter battlefield has become even more complex thanks to the decision by Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell to gazump the wavering minister with a Bill of his own on: ‘The use of e-scooters and certain e-bikes.’
Mr Farrell said his Bill would see Ireland benefit ‘from what I believe can be, a growing micro-mobility sector in the economy’.
Commenting on Mr Ryan’s delay, one Fine Gael source said: ‘[Mr Ryan] has been foostering around with a simple issue for nine months, he only has himself to blame for Alan’s decision to seize the electric scooter by the horns.’
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, Mr Farrell denied there had been an attempt to gazump Mr Ryan, saying: ‘Quite the contrary, I have been sitting on this for some time. If my Bill helps the minister get it over the line, I would be delighted.’