Data from e-scooter collisions not clear

Road danger disproportionately affects people travelling on foot, by cycle or by motorcycle, with 80 per cent of all those killed or seriously injured on London’s roads travelling by these modes. The Mayor has made a commitment to adopt Vision Zero for road danger in London.

The London Assembly Transport Committee has investigated progress on the plan, in two evidence sessions, hearing from Transport for London (TfL), the Met, City of London, passenger groups, representatives from Lime, Unite and a retired London bus driver.

Today, the Transport Committee has written to the Mayor with recommendations on its findings. Those recommendations include:

• TfL should provide an update on the progress of the e-scooter trial, including the numbers of rides and injuries that have occurred during the trial.
• TfL needs to review its approach to communicating the message and aims of Vision Zero to bus drivers and must increase its efforts to create a positive safety culture which ensures that bus driver fatigue is considered as an important feature in improving road safety.
• The Committee recommends that TfL develops an approach that tackles lack of compliance with speed limits, to stop cars travelling at high speeds and to help move towards the Vision Zero targets.
• Sustained measures should be put in place to ensure that vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, are properly protected and further attention should be given to addressing issues of inequality in relation to road safety.

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM, Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee said;

“Progress on Vision Zero has been good in some areas, but we believe there is room for improvement by TfL towards achieving its interim and overall targets. Two things of concern our investigation highlighted involved e-scooter safety data and bus driver fatigue.

“Currently all e-scooter collisions are recorded as involving a classification of ‘other vehicle’, which means it is hard to get meaningful data on e-scooter safety outside of trials. This needs to be rectified if an informed decision about their safety and use is to be made.

“We also heard evidence from a retired bus driver that the Vision Zero message is getting lost at operational level, and most bus drivers do not know what Vision Zero means, or how they are supposed to be trying to achieve it. It is clear that an independent piece of research is needed into bus drivers’ working conditions, to determine the scale of the problem.

“The sad discovery is that 90 per cent of Londoners still consider it inevitable that people will get killed and seriously injured on our roads. Until attitudes change and more consideration is given to fellow road users, Vision Zero will remain a mere aspiration, rather than an actual reality.”