I think if anything, we are probably at the peak of the trips:accidents ratio now.
At present the use of escooters in public is illegal. This means that *only* the sort of people who casually ignore road safety are using them. I think encouraging the rest of the population to use them lawfully and sensibly will not see anything like a proportional increase in accidents. We’ll see many more trips for only a handful more accidents because (a) the new users will be the kind of people who pay attention to road traffic rules and (b) the announcement of road traffic rules specifically for escooters will encourage even the people currently using them to think more about their safety on the road.
How are E-scooters currently illegal on the roads? The reality is the total opposite. Those Voi e-scooters have to be driven on the road and are illegal to ride on the pavement.
The safest thing to do would be make them legal on pavements. They are barely any faster than a cyclist and you wouldn’t have to worry about unfamiliar roads when you use one as a tourist.
If we scrutinized private car ownership at the same level we did scooters and bikes, private ownership would be illegal.
Yes, it’s all relative. Talk to a fireman who has had to cut a driver out of their metal box… the mind shudders at the thought of what goes on in the footwell, for example. But people have a false sense of security in their ‘bubble’. A collision or fall from a scooter is going to be less impactful (especially at the limited speeds), however, tragic accidents do still happen. Answer… just keep them away from pedestrians and cars/trucks. Otherwise, we will go down the rabbit hole of banning people from walking because they might bump into a lamp-post.
I have been riding an e scooter for about 5 years. Think I have 5 or 6 of the Xiaomi ones (a couple are my wife’s) I have done 10’s of thousands of KM on them.
From my experience it is the idiot that’s on it that hurts themselves.
I think they are a great thing to be honest but I don’t think you should just be allowed to pick it up and off you go. Should be a separate code on your license where you complete a days course to learn how to ride them or something rather than hop on one and off you go down the road as your first lesson.
I live in China. I haven’t been riding them illegally around the UK
well yes that is going to happen because more people will be riding them. Doesnt mean the inherent safety and risk of them on the road is the issue it just means theres going to be more people on the road.
Its like people in the early 1900s complaining about the rapid rise of left handed people after the suppression of left handed people ended.
These are cheap enough and good enough that a lot of people want to use them so it’s about time the govt set a regulation an min. set of standards for thier use.
Normalise the max speed to 20mph for urban traffic and a wheel size that won’t disappear into pot holes and these will be incredibly popular.
Kind of similar with drugs, people are going to do it anyway, so you may as well allow it with clear and identified rules and regulations.
I dont even live in a city with an approved rental scheme but I genuinely see more escooters around here than bikes.
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I think if anything, we are probably at the peak of the trips:accidents ratio now.
At present the use of escooters in public is illegal. This means that *only* the sort of people who casually ignore road safety are using them. I think encouraging the rest of the population to use them lawfully and sensibly will not see anything like a proportional increase in accidents. We’ll see many more trips for only a handful more accidents because (a) the new users will be the kind of people who pay attention to road traffic rules and (b) the announcement of road traffic rules specifically for escooters will encourage even the people currently using them to think more about their safety on the road.
How are E-scooters currently illegal on the roads? The reality is the total opposite. Those Voi e-scooters have to be driven on the road and are illegal to ride on the pavement.
The safest thing to do would be make them legal on pavements. They are barely any faster than a cyclist and you wouldn’t have to worry about unfamiliar roads when you use one as a tourist.
If we scrutinized private car ownership at the same level we did scooters and bikes, private ownership would be illegal.
Yes, it’s all relative. Talk to a fireman who has had to cut a driver out of their metal box… the mind shudders at the thought of what goes on in the footwell, for example. But people have a false sense of security in their ‘bubble’. A collision or fall from a scooter is going to be less impactful (especially at the limited speeds), however, tragic accidents do still happen. Answer… just keep them away from pedestrians and cars/trucks. Otherwise, we will go down the rabbit hole of banning people from walking because they might bump into a lamp-post.
I have been riding an e scooter for about 5 years. Think I have 5 or 6 of the Xiaomi ones (a couple are my wife’s) I have done 10’s of thousands of KM on them.
From my experience it is the idiot that’s on it that hurts themselves.
I think they are a great thing to be honest but I don’t think you should just be allowed to pick it up and off you go. Should be a separate code on your license where you complete a days course to learn how to ride them or something rather than hop on one and off you go down the road as your first lesson.
I live in China. I haven’t been riding them illegally around the UK
well yes that is going to happen because more people will be riding them. Doesnt mean the inherent safety and risk of them on the road is the issue it just means theres going to be more people on the road.
Its like people in the early 1900s complaining about the rapid rise of left handed people after the suppression of left handed people ended.
These are cheap enough and good enough that a lot of people want to use them so it’s about time the govt set a regulation an min. set of standards for thier use.
Normalise the max speed to 20mph for urban traffic and a wheel size that won’t disappear into pot holes and these will be incredibly popular.
Kind of similar with drugs, people are going to do it anyway, so you may as well allow it with clear and identified rules and regulations.
I dont even live in a city with an approved rental scheme but I genuinely see more escooters around here than bikes.