London rental e-scooter trial

I am glad that the rental scooters have lights (many of the private ones do not), but people riding on the pavement or leaving them slung in the middle of the pavement or road really need to be fined to prevent this dangerous behaviour. At the moment there is essentially no incentive against illegal use. It will only take a few fines and publicity to stop the scheme causing danger to pedestrians like me.

I was was narrowly missed by an irresponsible young person driving at high speed (MUCH FASTER than what these scooters presumably travel at because he was going downhill) illegally on the public footpath.  His elbow literally scraped my forearm which is when I first noticed him as I was near a bus stop and not in need to look out for a scooter being ridden ILLEGALLY on the public footpath.  Once I realised what had almost happened I turned around and the rider looked surprised and self-entitled because he clearly thought I would move (how if I was not looking????).   If he had hit me, I would definitely have ended up in hospital.  This scheme DOES NOT WORK,  Why doesn't london just spend more on making sure public transport works well adn that it is clean and well ventilated????  These scooters are UNNECESSARY and a threat to pedestrians.  It also contradicts all this 'healthy living' like walking everywhere to stay fit and healthy which the government promotes but then instantly contradicts.  Also, which inconsiderate person decided it was clever to have official licensed scooter parking near schools?  There are two stations either end of the road leading to the main entrance of the American School in London.  I sadly witnessed my son riding one (no helmet).  WHY???? Why has Westminster and London permitted this??? Are you trying to kill children?  This is insane.   This should NOT exist nor be legal.  Very poor.  Clearly someone is benefitting from the scheme; the operators and government people.  Have you no shame?

As far as I understand it, use of these e-scooters requires one to have a smartphone. This is discriminatory.

E scooters are almost always being ridden unsafley i.e. almost knocking me over on the pavement or driving down roads using no road sense and lacking any high vis clothing and in the middle of the road.

Until there is a public code for driving them including mandatory high vis jacket they should be banned not piloted using MY rates.

They should be required to hold insurance.     

e-scooters are positively dangerous for both riders and pedestrians (they are frequently ridden on pavements). They should be banned.

I find it totally illogical and arbitrarily discriminatory that big companies are allowed to offer e-scooters for hire, while private individuals are forbidden to ride their own. What’s next? Are all kinds of bicycles to become the preserve of monopolistic capitalism? It’s unfair.

I doubt that most young riders have driving licenses. I’ve never seen the police checking whether the riders carry a driving license. Not that the police are that concerned about e-scooter riding at all, not in Lambeth anyway.

A person who owns an e-scooter will take good care of it, whereas these rental scooters are just dumped on the pavement — blocking the way for pedestrians, and people with prams or mobility scooters.

All e-scooters, whether private or rental, are ridden interchangeably on the road or on the pavement, and this is not regulated at all. Maybe that’s OK, after all, if the riding of e-scooters were to be strictly regulated, it would cost a fortune to do so.

The big danger on our roads is not e-scooters, nor electrified bicycles, but motor cars. Perhaps it is cars that should be regulated out of existence instead. Tht would make the riding of e-scooters much safer.

Lime scooters and bikes are routinely dumped at the end of hire.

Lime needs a far easier reporting system to notify them that their property has been dumped.

As an aside, the Lime bike 'security' is notoriously easy to bypass, listen for the 'clicking' next time one passes you.

E scooters - are dangerous and a nuisance. Riders are unregulated, drive at speed, often on the pavement and used by children who are underage. They clutter our streets often causing an obstruction. A child in my local park suffered "life changing injuries" as a result of an accident with an e-scooter. There's no enforcement of the rules so it gives carte blanche to e-scooter users to behave recklessly.

While EVs do not emit CO2, lithium-ion batteries are made from raw materials such as cobalt, lithium and nickel. The mining of many of these materials raises serious ethical and environmental concerns and some of these metals could face a global shortage given potential battery demand. So precious resources are being used to transport a single person - this is neither environmentally sound nor is it economic. 

Additionally, lithium ion batteries can be costly and difficult to recycle. Once in landfills, metals from the batteries can contaminate soil and water.

E-scooters discourage walking and the use of public transport and are predominantly used by younger people. 

E-scooters and E-bikes are negatively impacting upon the enjoyment of our city. Time to tell theses profit based companies that we do not buy into their greenwashing narrative. Lets do what Paris had te courage to do and ban them.

Big failure of the trial is that it is not London-wide. I live outside the trial, but only just (Kingston). We see both hire and private scooters here, and being outside the trial, we often see them dumped. But that also means I cannot experience the hire scheme on my home patch.
The experience in Paris proves that a city-wide scheme can be ended if the general will is there. Paris also showed up many shortcomings.
For the UK as a whole the genie is out of the bottle as the ban on private scooters has not been enforced (allowing their sale was a huge mistake) and it will prove difficult to roll back on this now. For the future, I feel hire cycles (which will probably be all electric) together with  - most important - defined and generally recognised parking or docking /charging locations is the way forward.

I'm not sure that I am a typical person to express an opinion about rental e-scooters since I live and frequent an area slightly outside the concentration of this facility - namely Croydon. My real concern is based on the behaviour of those e-scooter riders that I see on a daily basis. Those that I observe riding on the public highways, whether hired or owned seem to be relatively safe if somewhat hurried. It is the behaviour of those using pedestrianised areas that is a concern. They seem to be an accident waiting to happen. They care not for the elderly, they ride at excessive speed and seem to be intent only at reaching their destination at the maximum speed of their machine. I would also like to point out that I have not seen many of these riders on their fast e-scooters wearing any kind of protective clothing or helmets which motor cyclists are legally required to wear. Perhaps some sort of regulation needs to be looked at.

You produced a survey that did not give people the option to say what is wrong with the schemes. My problems with e-scooters are:

1. E-scooters are dangerous on the road. If e-scooters are ridden on the roads it is difficult for other vehicle drivers, this includes bus drivers, to see them.  The accidents I've seen on the roads are when they are ridden amongst cyclists, and it is the e-scooter rider who has come off worse needing emergency treatment. This is because e-scooter riders don't seem to understand that they should not weave in and out but maintain an consistent speed.

2. If they are ridden on pavements they are a risk to all pedestrians including small children.

3. I live in a borough where there aren't any to rent however they are ridden around my borough on pavements and randomly dumped in my borough in the way.

4. Two of the hire locations in the next borough are deliberately on that borough's boundary with the borough I live in. This explains why they are taken over boundary lines. All e-scooters and e-bikes should have functionality to stop this happening.

5. I am fed up of reporting dumped e-scooters, e-bikes and Santander bikes. Only one operator of e-bikes is allowed in my borough but the rest including e-scooters are just dumped.

I have 2 problems with e scooters.

1. They are often ridden locally on the pavement at speed, and there have been a number of collisions with pedestrians.

2. My wife fell over an e scooter just discarded in the middle of a pavement.  Fortunately only bruises.

I feel whilst e scooters could eb a good way forward for low cost and sustainable transport, riders need training on how to sue them, and should be made more responsible for their use. Unfortunately we may come to a point of needing people to pass a test and have insurance to ride them

Great idea, not in enough areas yet.

Should be under same restrictions as push bikes, and not ridden on the pavement.

Proper segregated bike /scooter lanes should be increased for the success of this scheme. No one will want to ride a scooter amongst dangerous traffic, or hire bikes, walk or anything.

Private scooters (of a safe standard) should be allowed.

There is a clear need for this form of transport as 1000's of scooters are in use despite the risk of prosecution. Make it legal and regulated for safety reasons.

IMHO e-scooters, rental or not, are a scourge on London's roads, and more particularly, illegally on our pavements.

Bring the scheme to Wandsworth!! 
 

the roads are seriously being naused up by ltn’s - buses can’t get through because of this idiocy. Can’t ride a bike but could use a scooter to get - say - to hospital appointments. Buses are as good as a chocolate tea pot. 

The survey was very biased. There was no option to say whether or not these scooters should be allowed or not. They are and absolute menace and should be banned. If they are ridden on pavements they are a danger to pedestrians. If they are ridden on roads they are a danger to other road users. 
 

rhey are frequently ridden in an antisocial way used for mugging or by irresponsible riders with no road sense causing a major hazard for other vehicles including cyclists. People have already been seriously injured or killed with these machines. 
 

the design is fundamentally unsafe.  Too fast for pavements and th rider is both entirely unprotected riding in a position that can easily fall off and being unsecured by seat belt etc in traffic not visible to buses and lorries . As a transport solution they are no good for disabled people or older people or indeed anyone with the sense to value their safety 

they need to be banned not encouraged and it is totally irrresponsibke to the londin authority to increase their use there is no way these are safe. Cars have to go through proper safety testing to protect occupants and pedestrians . The autohiritris are creating a known danger on our roads or pavements allowing these and this biased survey is another example of asking the wrong questions to get the result the authority wants rather than what the people of london want 

I find the outrage about escooters strange when compared to other vehicles - escooter riders do sometimes speed, park badly etc., but so do drivers. Cars speeding down residential roads are much more dangerous than escooters! And I see far more frequent & significant problems with cars blocking pavement access (e.g. parked half on/off the kerb so there's space for a pedestrian but not a wheelchair user, or cars too big for the driveways they're parked on, so they stick out onto the pavement force & prams etc. into the road). Scooters are new so I understand people notice them more, but cars are a far greater nuisance.

I think all powered vehicles - including cars, mopeds, escooters, etc. - should be automatically speed limited to the area they're in. It would reduce dangerous driving/riding and unnecessary noise pollution, and the technology already exists!

But even without that, I think escooters are an important part of the transport picture for a big city. Buses and trains/tubes have their limitations, especially in South London where I live; not everyone can cycle; and we should all be focussed on reducing the number of cars on the road (to reduce pollution & fossil fuel use, reduce road danger, reclaim public space and improve bus timings)... Escooters therefore fill a small but important niche, and I hope the use of them in London is supported to expand.

The London Mayor should be prosecuted for allowing the use of these dangerous illegal machines which are used by maniacal operators on both roads, pavements, shopping precincts and wherever else the operator chooses. They appear to have all the protection and vulnerabilities of a pedestrian whilst being mechanically propelled vehicles with the capacity to kill.The fact that they are mechanically checked does not make them any safer than privately owned illegal machines. The users are not licensed, regulated or registered like other mechanically propelled vehicles have to be and are a menace to society. My wife was knocked down by an E scooter user who promptly hopped back on his vehicle and disappeared leaving her on the ground injured. I abhor these dangerous machines and the totally irresponsible attitude being adopted by the authorities to their use. They like bicycles should be made universally illegal or registered, regulated and insured to make their users identifiable and responsible for the consequences of their use just like any other mechanically propelled vehicle.

They are a complete abomination.  Any rules imposed or implied on users are very broadly ignored.  Outrageous danger to pedestrians, and those who pay for for the use of the roads.

Retailers that sell private e-scooters should also take responsibility for their actions.

No-one in their right mind can seriously suggest that when an e-scooter is sold privately, it will be used by the purchaser within the limited present legal frame.

I remember the story of the wife of someone for whom she bought her husband an e-scooter for £350, stating it is the most expensively invested gift she had ever given.  If there were laws in place like compulsory head protection, then perhaps her husband would not have lost his life.  No-one reminded her that there is an excellent law already in place that would have prevented his death-they are illegal to use in public!

There are so many e-scooters zooming past all that time that it's impossible to discern one brand from another. I'm more concerned with the lack of information provided to the public about the legal use of e-scooters (or any scooters for that matter). Is any educational material given to those who rent from these schemes and are they made to sign something saying they'll adhere to the (admittedly unpublicised) rules? To rent a Santander cycle, you have to scroll through about 10 pages of fine print. I hope there is such legalese to ostensibly hold e-scooter renters accountable, as well.

With e-scooters on the pavement (being ridden and parked), more outdoor dining and other furniture on the pavement, and cyclists being allowed on the pavement now, where are pedestrians supposed to safely go?