Transport authorities call for powers over e-scooters

The Urban Transport Group is calling for a new national enabling framework to give locally accountable transport authorities the option to regulate key aspects of micromobility rental services.

In a new report, the group argues that the new powers would give authorities the option of regulating the number of operators, the size of their fleets, their geographical coverage, the location of their parking, as well as to recover reasonable costs from operators who use their roads and infrastructure.

It has also been recommended that micromobility rental scheme operators should be required to share data with authorities to support transport planning. The Urban Transport Group states that locally accountable strategic transport authorities are best placed to regulate micromobility rental services in their areas, to ensure that they complement existing transport provision and meet the wider needs of the people and places they serve.

Beyond the rental market, the report strongly recommends that the Department for Transport set robust standards for the construction of e-scooters as well as for their use on the road, including details of applicable offences and how these will be enforced.  

Laura Shoaf, chair of the Urban Transport Group, and chief executive at West Midlands Combined Authority, said: “Our areas have enthusiastically taken part in the e-scooter trials as part of our wider role in exploring how new forms of mobility can bring benefits to travellers in a way that doesn’t act against the wider public interest.

“If e-scooters are legalised following the trials, we believe that whilst national government should set a high bar for the safety and use of the e-scooters themselves, authorities need to have powers available to them to regulate the operation of the rental market. These powers are needed to give us the tools to act if necessary against over provision or irresponsible parking and use. These powers would also allow us to find the balance that works locally between the benefits to individual users and the wider responsibility we have for public safety, for minimising congestion and for promoting modal shift.”

Over 30 trials of e-scooters, initially set to run for a year, are underway in towns and cities across England, and most of these have now been extended to November 2022.