Local transport authorities best placed to regulate micromobility services
Urban Transport Group (UTG), the UK’s network of city region transport authorities, is calling for a national enabling framework to give locally accountable transport authorities the option to regulate e-scooter and other micromobility rental services.
UTG’s new report The future of e-scooters: what powers do cities need and what standards should be set? makes the case that new powers would give authorities the option of regulating the number of operators, the size of their fleets, their geographical coverage, the location of their parking, and allow them to implement a mechanism to recover reasonable costs from operators who use their roads and infrastructure.
While acknowledging that implementation of new powers will depend on local circumstances, the report recommends that locally accountable strategic transport authorities are best placed to regulate micromobility rental services, ensuring they complement the existing transport provision and meet the wider needs of the people and places they serve.
The report highlights there are over 30 trials of e-scooters underway in towns and cities across England, most of which have been extended to run to November 2022.
But while e-scooters are legal to buy and sell, outside of the trials their use on public roads, cycle ways and pavements remains illegal, but is increasingly common. Illegal use raises significant safety concerns given the immense variation in e-scooter quality and safety specifications.
With the end of the trials approaching, and increasing concerns about illegal use outside of them, UTG’s report outlines a series of recommendations for both the rental and ownership market should the Government decide to legalise their use following the trials.
Beyond the rental market, the report strongly recommends that the Department for Transport sets robust standards for the construction (such as speed, wheel size, brakes and lighting) of e-scooters as well as for their use on the road, including details of applicable offences and how these will be enforced.
The report also sets out the wide-ranging risks if the report’s recommendations are not implemented.
These include:
Danger to users, pedestrians and other road users from falls, collisions and other incidents
Micromobility services not complementing existing journey patterns and transport provision, limiting the capacity for modal shift
Pedestrians being unable to safely use obstructed streets and footways
Lack of data to inform transport planning
Lack of traceability of riders, and
The potential for e-scooters to be used in criminal activity.
Laura Shoaf, Chair of the Urban Transport Group, and Chief Executive at West Midlands Combined Authority, said, “Our areas have enthusiastically taken part in the e-scooter trials as part of our wider role in exploring how new forms of mobility can bring benefits to travellers in a way that doesn’t act against the wider public interest.
“If e-scooters are legalised following the trials, we believe that while national Government should set a high bar for the safety and use of the e-scooters themselves, authorities need to have powers to regulate the operation of the rental market. These powers would allow us to find the balance that works locally between the benefits to individual users and the wider responsibility we have for public safety, for minimising congestion and for promoting modal shift.”