A big expansion of the scheme is coming
Scooters and bikes are now available at Lyde Green Park & Ride along with their own parking bay. West of England Mayor Helen Godwin, Iqbal Ahmed from Tier/Dott, and South Gloucestershire councillor Chris Willmore.(Image: Freia Turland)
They are a familiar site in Bristol, Kingswood and Bath, but now the Government’s legal e-scooter hire scheme – and e-bikes too – is expanding much further into South Gloucestershire and the suburbs around Bristol than ever before.
It will mean tens of thousands of people will be able to – in theory – download an app, hire an e-scooter or an e-bike, and ride them on the roads and cycle paths around the West of England.
The expansion was launched on Thursday by bosses from the hire company Dott, and by the West of England metro mayor Helen Godwin. Also there was Cllr Chris Willmore, the woman in charge of infrastructure at South Gloucestershire Council, who outlined where exactly – and when – the scooter expansion was being rolled out to different parts of the area.
The expansion will mean that, if everything goes according to plan, by this time next year, residents in pretty much most towns and large settlements in South Gloucestershire will be part of the e-bike and e-scooter hire scheme, including Thornbury, Yate and Chipping Sodbury.
Where will the e-scooter hire scheme expand?
Until this week, the e-scooter scheme covered basically all of Bristol and the part of ‘Bristol’ that’s in South Gloucestershire inside the Avon Ring Road – so, Downend, Emersons Green, Staple Hill and Kingswood.
The roll-out launch took place at the Lyde Green transport hub – the park and ride for the metrobus service and other local buses – and the very first area for the scheme to cover for the first time was Lyde Green.
Within days, the scheme will expand into the ‘other side’ of the Avon Ring Road, to the east into Cadbury Heath, Longwell Green, Oldland Common and Warmley.
From July 7, scooters and e-bikes will start appearing in parking bays in the areas to the north of the M4, in Coalpit Heath, Frampton Cotterell and Winterbourne.
And then, there will be a further expansion later this year – although no timeframe has yet been set – which will see the e-bikes and e-scooters appear on the streets and pavements of Yate and Chipping Sodbury.
Finally, the long-term plan is for the e-scooter hire scheme to be extended to Thornbury and Alveston, but this is unlikely to happen this year, and could well be something that occurs next spring.
Expanding the e-scooter and e-bike hire scheme requires a co-ordinated plan from WECA, which is running the scheme, South Gloucestershire Council, the individual town and parish councils and Tier/Dott, the company that is providing the bikes and scooters and the app.
Cllr Willmore explained that two key challenges have to be addressed before an area is brought into the hire scheme trial. The first is that enough suitable parking areas are identified, either wide pavements, or on-street parking bays, and secondly, that Tier/Dott are ready and able to provide the machines and the resources to maintain the scheme when it gets up and running.
Scooters and bikes are now available at Lyde Green Park & Ride along with their own parking bay. (Image: Freia Turland)
Experience in Bristol and Bath has shown that this tends to happen slowly, with it taking a while for people to get used to the arrival of e-scooters, and Tier/Dott gradually rolling out the machines in ever-increasing numbers as demand grows.
Cllr Willmore said the expansion is ready to go in the areas east of the ring road and north of the M4 that will be included this month and into July, while the expansion into Chipping Sodbury and Yate is at the stage where suitable parking areas are currently being identified.
“In terms of Thornbury, the ambition is to expand the scheme there but only after there is the physical infrastructure to make it possible – a key part of which is the link between Thornbury and Alveston, and on the A38,” said Cllr Willmore.
“It’s no good saying that Alveston is included in the trial, if people can’t actually ride or scoot there, for example. We will be talking to the town council to see if and when this is going to be possible, but the ambition is to bring Thornbury on board too,” she added.
“This is something completely new for a lot of communities,” she said. “Obviously people will have seen the scooters being ridden around Bristol or Bath, and private e-scooters are increasingly popular, but illegal. But it’s about getting people used to seeing the parking areas, seeing the scooters and the scheme itself,” she said.