E-Scooter Laws In The UK? Keep Waiting, It’ll Be A While

An e-scooter law is on the way in the UK — eventually.

While headlines are blaring that the government is set to finally legislate e-scooters, what Transport Secretary Louise Haigh actually said is that though she backs such a law, one won't be introduced in the current parliamentary session — which lasts until next summer.

Speaking at a transport committee session this week, Haigh said: "We've not got parliamentary time in this session or a relevant bill that could be used to regulate e-scooters, but we will look to legislate."

She added: "It is clearly required... It's not good enough that it's been left in this situation for too long."

Britons have been promised an e-scooter law before: the previous government proposed regulations that would limit specifications and speeds, but failed to make it happen. "We are the only developed economy, aside from the Netherlands, to not legislate," Richard Dilks, chief executive at Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK), tells me in an interview.

Given Haigh's comments, Dilks predicts that it'll realistically take until 2027 at the earliest to develop a bill to bring to a future session of parliament, pass it into law, and then have it take full operational effect. "Better late than never," he added.

Of course, e-scooters are already on UK roads — and sidewalks. That's happened via a series of trials that allowed rental or shared e-scooters in specific locations, which could happen under existing UK legislation by deeming them motor vehicles, adds Dilks. Private e-scooters aren't technically allowed under law anywhere but on private land, though many are clearly in use; Dilks says there's no clear figures, but it's estimated to be in the six figures, he says.

Quick to legislate, faster to ban

Beyond the UK, regulators have acted more quickly — in the case of Paris, city authorities approved e-scooters in 2018, regulated them in 2019 and then banned them last year, though privately owned models are still allowed if insured.

Other cities have also banned rented, shared e-scooters from city streets, including Mebourne, Australia and Madrid, Spain. In the UK, a trial in Kent was halted early over safety concerns, according to one council member, because riders weren't following rules, leading to a serious injury of an 80-year-old woman. Dozens of other e-scooter trials in the UK have been extended, though.

The driving force behind the aforementioned city bans has been safety, alongside antisocial parking. As Melbourne Mayor Nicholas Reece said this summer: "Too many people [are] riding on footpaths. People don't park them properly. They're tipped, they're scattered around the city like confetti, like rubbish, creating tripping hazards."

Oslo, Norway didn't fully remove shared e-scooters, but in 2021 slashed numbers on the streets from 20,000 to 8,000 — and banned them from being rented between 11pm and 5am, after spotting that most injuries happened just before midnight, which the ETSC report pinned on "drunk riding".

In the UK across 2022, the Department of Transport reported 1,492 injuries (440 serious) and 12 deaths, 11 of which were the rider and one pedestrian. Half of those were believed to happen inside areas running an e-scooter trial; the rest were assumed to be on private e-scooters.

Such figures are reflected across Europe: in a recent report, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) revealed there were 5,867 serious injuries and 119 people killed across 27 countries in Europe in 2022, up from 81 the year before.

Given the UK is so far behind the curve, why legislate to allow e-scooters? The hope is that they can help Britons switch away from cars to a net-zero emissions (at point of use, at least) form of transport. But Haigh noted in her response to the transport committee that we need to "really carefully analyze what journeys they are replacing ".

Regulating e-scooters

Either way, without a law outright banning or enabling e-scooters, their status remains ambiguous. It is possible to buy an e-scooter, but only for use on private property, though as Dilks noted, many are already in use in public places.

"At the moment, although private e-scooters are illegal, people are still buying and using them, often unsafely," said Silviya Barrett, Director of Policy and Research at the Campaign for Better Transport. "Legislation to legalize private e-scooters needs to happen soon, so they can be regulated just like hire ones."

Where trials of rented e-scooters are taking place in the UK, they must have a maximum speed of 15.5 mph and only carry a single rider. That may seem a good place to start with regulations for the UK, but Dilks suggests stepping back further: first, define a category in law that includes them, as between electric bikes and mopeds, there's nothing. He believes that should be kept vague enough to include future innovations in low powered, zero emissions personal transport.

Then, secondary regulation can define the specs allowed and rules for e-scooters to follow now, while still staying flexible enough in the future to accommodate new designs and technologies, Dilks adds.

The ETSC report noted above made a few key recommendations to increase safety with motorized micro mobility: physically limiting the acceleration as well as top speed of e-scooters to 20km/h (12.5 mph); requiring a helmet and appropriate lights; banning them for those under the age of 16; restricting them to one person per device; and requiring safe infrastructure to keep e-scooters off of roads above 30 km/h. As with cars, alcohol and mobile phone use should also be banned.

Debate remains around licensing, insurance and other restrictions. "Age limits should be stipulated, but we do not think a driver's license should be required — fewer young people are learning to drive, and e-scooters should be an option for people who do not want to drive," added Barrett.

However, plenty of people are knowingly meddling with the software on their e-scooters to dodge speed limits. The ETSC noted that it's difficult to assess the rate at which privately owned e-scooters are tampered with to get around speed and acceleration limiters, and suggested that anti-tampering mechanisms should not only be included "at the factory", but that tampering should be prohibited by law.

Beyond the device itself, rental e-scooter suppliers must sort out how to better keep the machines from littering pavements, and otherwise ensure their riders behave.

Educate e-scooter riders

But research from Dr Petya Ventsislavova at Nottingham Trent University found that half of e-scooter riders surveyed weren't aware of the laws around speed or parking, and many more didn't know that pavements were out of bounds or that a provisional driving license is required for rentals. "The study demonstrated that riders aware of existing e-scooter rules were less likely to engage in illegal and risky riding behaviors, whereas those unaware were more prone to such actions," she says in an interview.

A subsequent study, funded by the British Academy and still under peer review, revealed that even experienced riders engaged in risky behaviors, such as running red lights, speeding and dangerous overtaking.

"Alarmingly, their hazard perception skills were deficient, with many failing to identify and predict hazardous situations, which likely contributes to the high number of collisions," she added. "In addition, the second study of this project demonstrated that targeted e-scooter safety training effectively reduced risky riding behavior compared to no training at all."

Has the long time it's taken to pull together a law entrenched some of these negative behaviors? "Yes, in my opinion, action is long overdue," says Ventsislavova.

But it could be years before a law does come into force, meaning existing behaviors will continue to be the norm, but also that people will continue to purchase e-scooters that may soon be deemed illegal.

Learning what works for e-scooters

Being slow to act does have one benefit: "The UK has an advantage as it can learn from the experiences of other countries where private e-scooters have already been legalized," Ventsislavova adds.

That includes setting a legal minimum age, sorting out parking, collision reporting and banning alcohol use. Beyond that, Ventsislavova points to the ETSC's factory-set speed limits of 20km/h as an idea to borrow, but says there's more to e-scooter safety than technical requirements. Other interventions to try in the UK could include Spain's education and training focused on young people, as well as Nordic bans on shared e-scooters overnight.

"By analyzing these examples, the UK can adopt best practices and implement effective measures to address safety, infrastructure, and regulatory challenges more efficiently," she added.

Given Haigh doesn't intend to legislate on e-scooters until the next session of parliament at earliest, there's plenty of time to get the law right, at least.