Campaigners call for e-scooters to be legalised to improve safety

Voices from across the transport, retail, manufacturing, legal, research and university sectors have joined forces to call for e-scooters to be legalised across the UK to dramatically improve safety.

In total, nine organisations have come together to urge the government to bring forward legislation that would create a new powered light vehicle class. The move is designed to ensure e-scooters, whether rented in shared use schemes or privately owned, are subject to high safety standards, with many hundreds of thousands of unregulated vehicles already in use.

The organisations, including Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK), the Centre for London think-tank, the Major Trauma Group and the London Cycling Campaign, say that the current e-scooter trials, which began in 2020, have been ‘highly popular’ with over 15 million rides taking place in the UK so far.

The campaigners say a change in the law would define e-scooters to a high standard of safety and help to lower greenhouse gas emissions from transport, as well as cutting congestion and repurposing streets away from cars.

Their letter adds that the UK is the only developed nation without legislation or a plan for it, and explains how new regulations would help to grow ‘clean jobs’.