Should not pavements be for pedestrians?
Once upon a time in Horsham, like all towns and cities in this country, the pavements were for people to walk safely and freely separated from dangerous vehicular traffic. Advances in technology have helped those with disabilities to get out and about using mobility scooters. There is little legislation to control their use and the Horsham Town Community Partnership has tried to help by offering free mobility scooter awareness training at Park Barn, Horsham.
We have Horsham District Council looking at the practicalities of cyclists riding across Carfax and no doubt other pedestrianised areas of the Town so cyclists do not have to dismount and walk. The vast majority of residents and visitors come to the centre of Horsham to enjoy their stay, not to dodge cyclists.
Yet another more dangerous potential hazard looms over the horizon for pedestrians in our town. These are electric scooters, commonly known as e-scooters.
At present e-scooters can be bought but the only place they can be used is on private land. The Government has allowed more than 30 areas to trial their use. These e-scooter trials allow individuals to rent from limited locations similar to bike rental racks in towns around the county. These areas include Newcastle, Bristol, Bournemouth and some boroughs in London. The 18-month trial period is to assess how to create legislation to cover their use. Currently there is no specific law for e-scooters so they are recognised as ‘powered transport’, falling under the same laws and regulations as motor vehicles. The trials will generally run until autumn 2021 with some taking longer – April 2022 – due to their late start. No doubt coronavirus played its part here. The e-scooters on trial have the top speed reduced to 8mph (13km/h) for safety. Hire charges vary but it typically costs £1 to unlock an e-scooter using a smartphone app, plus a fee of 14p-20p per minute. The most powerful privately owned e-scooters can reach up to 68mph (110km/h). The exact number of crashes involving e-scooters has not been made clear but there have been two well-publicised fatalities of people using e-scooters. The police in London recorded that e-scooters were involved in 574 crimes such as robberies or assaults between July 2020 and April 2021. The speed and nimbleness of e-scooters now offer an attractive option for some criminals.
There is debate in the House of Lords on e-scooters which has highlighted that our streets are becoming a nightmare where riders terrorise pedestrians, young and old, the blind and the disabled.
The government has yet to debate the positive and negative impacts of electric scooters. They intend to study the data and evidence of the current road trials and use this to help formulate a decision as to whether the use of e-scooters should be legalised. Now is the time to make your views known to our Member of Parliament.
Meanwhile there is increasing illegal use of these e-scooters on Horsham town centre roads, and particularly Carfax and West Street. Action needs to be taken.