It’s On The Cards...Uber Backed Electric Scooters Looking For Segregated Scooter Lanes.

It’s On The Cards...Uber Backed Eclectic Scoots Looking For Segregated Scooter Lanes.

On the biased BBC, this morning, interviewees were talking about how clean electric scooters are and how they fit in with the Mayors walking and cycling plans for cleaner air in London.

One interviewee said that they were safer than cyclists as virtually ever scooter has a flashing light on the rear unlike cycles who are mainly unlit at night. 

He went in to say that as the rider stands upright, they are more visible than cycles. 

The cyclist lobby however have a different view saying that the scooters are extremely dangerous to cyclists and pedestrians.... pot calling the kettle black perhaps?

TfL are looking to regulate the vehicles and (according to the BBC broadcast) are leaning towards implementing a system of segregated lanes designed specially for the scooters. 

(Nice contracts handed out to one of their larger stakeholders)

The Taxi trades largest union will probably wait and see before they comment on the affect of a new plethora of segregated scooter lanes and the impact to the already gridlocked transport network. 

Not a word this morning about the recent death of Emily Hartridge. 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

TfL are chomping at the bit, as they look forward to a new income stream, selling permits for on road electric scooters, using segregated cycle lanes. 

Will TfL be looking to recoup their buget spent on cycle lanes by selling permits to cyclists ???

Television presenter Emily the first Hartridge is believed to be person to die in an accident involving an electric scooterin the UK.

But how common are they and what is the law?

In London, they are illegal on pavements and roads and can only be used on private property and parkland. 

This week has seen action from the Met, mainly in Islington where over 100 scooters have been stopped and given a verbose warning 

How popular are they?

Electric scooters are two-wheeled scooters with small, electric motors to power them, which have become increasingly popular in the Capital and can be found in large numbers in most European cities and in the US.

They have exploded in popularity since scooter-sharing schemes (from the likes of Uber) took off in about 2017 and are now available in more than 100 cities across the world.

Cities including San Francisco, Paris and Copenhagen have piloted a scheme to let people hire an electric scooter in a way similar to city bicycle hire.