Take a chance on…e-scooters

Last week, London officially scooted into the e-scooter game when a rental trial launched in the Capital, seeing the two-wheeled speed machines available for rent in a selected five boroughs.

The trial is part of a wider initiative by the UK Government, Transport for London and London Boroughs to facilitate uptake of new and greener forms of transport, and has emerged following trials in other parts of the UK and success of similar rental schemes already seen across Europe. It is anticipated that the scheme, if rolled out on a permanent basis over a larger area, will assist in reducing the risk of increased car dependence following the pandemic.

The trial also follows the recent adoption of the London Plan 2021, which, amongst other key objections, seeks to rebalance the transport system through a modal shift away from car use, with a target for 80 per cent of all trips in London to be made by foot, cycle or public transport by 2041. This is a huge undertaking.

Until now, e-scooters have been illegal for use in London, largely down to safety concerns due to their competition for space with pedestrians, cyclists, and road traffic. This is primarily a result of our transport infrastructure which, compared with London’s European counterparts, has historically been relatively poorly set up for cycle and other micromobility use.

During a recent trip to Stockholm, I was able to see first-hand the benefits of e-scooter rental in facilitating cheap and convenient access across the city both for commuters and tourists alike (to the ABBA museum and back for me!). This system comes with three years of experience with shared e-scooters and an already established network of wide designated and bidirectional cycle lanes that are notoriously a feature of virtually every major road in Stockholm. A similar picture is seen across many European cities, and it is something we lack.  

Last May, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced the launch of a two-billion-pound package to create a new era for cycling and walking in England, representing the largest ever boost for cyclists and pedestrians. The Policy Paper ‘Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Walking’ published in July 2020 set out how the government will fund and work with local authorities across the country to improve infrastructure for cyclists to increase uptake. This includes funding, as well as a focus on what the planning system can do. While many local plans already seek to highlight the importance of pedestrian and cycle infrastructure within policies, this often does not materialise in planning decisions. Part of the latest government push will see public body Active Travel England emerge as a statutory consultee for planning applications for all developments over a certain threshold to ensure adequate cycling and walking provision and offer expert advice on how provision could be improved as part of planning applications. This infrastructure can then in turn be used by other modes such as e-scooters.

We have already started to see significant physical improvements through the first stage, which have focused on councils reallocating road space for cyclists and pedestrians through the creation of pop-up bike lanes with protected space for cyclists, wider pavements, safer and signalled junctions, and cycle and bus-only corridors. However, this needs to actually be a network of continuous lanes connecting places where people want to go i.e. connecting to public transport interchanges, rather than just delivered in part. Without this baseline infrastructure for cyclists that so many European cities already had in place before introducing e-scooters into the equation, London will simply become a playground for e-scooter riders and the debate over their safety will continue.

It is clear that e-scooters could potentially play a role in reducing car dependence in London, but they certainly will not be an overnight fix. In order to put the best foot forward for success, and to assist in facilitating the modal shift from car trips sought by the new London Plan, the roll out of such an approach needs to be aligned with government and city policies which seek to create the environment conducive to their uptake.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the trials play out and whether greater uptake may spark further and more specific improvements to our transport infrastructure. As with any major change, there will no doubt be some teething problems and scepticism from some. I think if policies can implement the positive changes talked about by the Government to facilitate a better ratio of road space for cyclists and alternative modes, with the correct laws on safe use, e-scooters should not be ruled out as a convenient and exciting green alternative for London.