Let e-scooters on the roads
Campaign rolls on for their official classification
CALLS have been made to legalise e-scooter use in public in a bid to improve their safety.
The devices can be bought legally but it is against the law in Scotland to operate them in any public space such as a road or footpath.
E-scooter sales have soared but police warned last year that parents should not buy them for children, adding that they are “not toys”.
Manufacturers have now asked the UK Government to bring forward legislation to create a new powered light vehicle class.
In a letter to ministers, nine organisations argued a law change would subject e-scooters to a high standard of safety and help lower greenhouse gas emissions from transport. The group said: “It would end the dangerous position we have currently, where at least hundreds of thousands of entirely unregulated e-scooters are (when ridden on public highway) in illegal use, yet where we have no committed plan to deal with this.”
Among those to sign the letter are the bosses of Cenex and Taur, which manufacture e-scooters, and experts at Warwick University.
About 30 areas in England, including London, are operating rental schemes. Hired e-scooters have maximum speed limits of 15.5mph but privately owned models can reach up to 68mph.
Earlier this year, Glasgow City Council called for the Scottish Government to make e-scooters legal on the road network.
Government statistics revealed there were 460 accidents involving e-scooters in Britain in 2020.
TV presenter Emily Hartridge, 35, became the first person to die in an e-scooter accident when she fell into the path of an HGV at a roundabout in Battersea, London, in 2019.