Scooter wars
The battle to take over Britain’s roads – and get the law changed
At first glance it was just another tragedy on the congested streets of south London. But the recent death of Youtube star Emily Hartridge in a collision with a lorry in Battersea has triggered a fierce debate about the future of urban transport in Britain.
Hartridge, 35, was riding an electric scooter at the time, making her the first recorded victim of a fatal accident involving the new vehicles on UK roads – where they technically remain illegal.
The accident, on July 12, has reignited the debate around the safety of electric scooters, just as a string of well-funded companies have been lobbying hard for a relaxation of laws barring their use on British roads.
Hartridge is not the only person to have been involved in a serious accident recently. A 14-year-old boy suffered a serious head injury when the electric scooter he was riding crashed into a bus stop in Beckenham.
Amid a growing debate over whether the vehicles represent a clean, green alternative or a dangerous menace to the public, one thing seems clear. The accidents threaten to intensify resistance to the scooter firms as they push for new laws allowing them to launch their vehicles across the UK.
Different companies have come up with a variety of strategies to push the scooters, which are already a common sight in San Francisco, Los Angeles and in cities across Europe. Customers rent them for as long as they like using
an app in much the same way as they do rental bikes.
American scooter start-up Bird has turned to private land as a way to trial its vehicles in London. The firm has raised more than £300m in funding, and is the quickest start-up to reach a “unicorn” valuation of $1bn (£805m).
In November, the company launched a trial service in the Olympic Park, where customers can use the Bird app to find a nearby electric scooter, and then rent it as they travel to or from the offices in the park.
The trial is legal because there are no public highways in the park. Instead, Bird’s scooters operate on private land exempt from usual transport laws.
For Bird, the Olympic Park trial is a vision of the future it wishes to bring to the UK. Commuters zip along the pathways on scooters, leaving the vehicles outside their offices for others to rent.
The trial was extended earlier this year after more than 1,000 trips were taken, the company said.
But Bird is not the only firm vying to operates its scooters here. Swedish firm Voi has expanded across Europe in recent years and has raised more than $80m in funding from investors including British firms Balderton Capital and Localglobe.
Fredrik Hjelm, Voi’s chief executive, said his firm has been in touch with transport regulators in the UK to lobby them to change the laws. “We’re following closely how regulations develop,” he said.
And Bird’s arch rival Lime, which currently has a fleet of electric bicycles in London, also operates electric scooters in other countries around the world, including in Paris. If laws change here, then Lime is likely to deploy thousands of its scooters in the UK as well. These firms have spent months lobbying the Department for Transport for a change in Britain’s ageing transport laws that would legalise electric scooters on public highways, allowing people to ride their own scooters and use scooter
‘We favour making e-scooters legal because then, where provided by responsible operators, they can be regulated and policed’
rental apps.
One law currently blocking the launch of scootersharing services in the UK is the Highway Act 1835, which restricts the movement of “horse, ass, sheep, mule, swine and cattle” as well as “carriage of any description” on UK roads. It is this law, along with the Road Traffic Act 1988, that scooter rental apps want updated to allow them to operate.
A written submission from Bird to an inquiry by the transport select committee earlier this year showcases the company’s argument for changes to transport legislation. In the document, Bird wrote government “risks the UK falling behind its competitors as they benefit from new modes of transport that help reduce congestion and improve air quality.”
Handwritten notes from a meeting between Bird and the Government show that the firm wants to expand to Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge once it receives the green light. Oxford and Cambridge have “good infrastructure,” notes released to The Daily Telegraph read, which appealed to Bird.
The lobbying campaign has not been halted following the death of Hartridge, however. Michael Ellis, the Transport Minister, met with employees of Bird and Voi, along with competitors Flash and Dott on Monday to discuss the legality of the scooters and their safety. Hartridge was not
using a scooter rental app when she died, and instead appeared to be riding one that was given to her as a birthday present.
Hjelm acknowledged that more and more people are now purchasing their own electric scooters. “We favour making e-scooters legal because then, where provided by responsible operators, they can be regulated and policed properly, just like other modes of transport,” he said.
Paul Hodgins, of Ginger, a British firm hoping to launch its own fleets of scooters in the UK, called for more education for road users. “Our roads will be safer when we have fewer large powerful vehicles,” he said.
Scooter companies such as Bird and Lime have often pointed to Paris as an example of the forward-thinking attitude the UK should be adopting. Paris embraced scooter firms with open arms, and the businesses expect to have more than 40,000 scooters in the city by the end of the year.
More than 500,000 trips on Bird scooters were made in the first three months of Bird’s operations in the city, a spokesman said. But there are now signs that Paris is beginning to regret inviting scooter firms on to its streets.
Elisabeth Borne, the French minister of transport, has said that Paris is experiencing “the law of the jungle” after scooter companies filled its streets with tens of thousands of vehicles. And Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, has criticised the “anarchic” scooters.
The city has now introduced fines and regulations aimed at reducing the number of scooters, and encouraging residents to park them neatly instead of dumping them on the pavement.
The switch in Parisian regulators’ approach towards the scooter firms comes after the city saw its first electric scooter driver fatality last month, when a 25-year-old man died after colliding with a lorry.
The incidents in London and Paris may have raised the profile of electric scooters and caused a fresh debate about their safety, but electric scooter start-ups are undaunted in their approach to lobbying for their legalisation in the UK.
Regulators will be closely examining how Paris deals with its scooter overcrowding, and the death of Hartridge is certain to give pause when considering how to proceed.