I get more complaints about e-scooters than almost anything else. I am determined to tackle the issue and make our roads and pavements as safe as possible.
Many people complain about e-scooters dashing at high speed along pavements, cutting close to children or zipping dangerously in and out of traffic on roads. This is not just bias by those who don’t like e-scooters. A study carried out in 2015 showed that compared to cyclists, those on e-scooters were more likely to engage in risky behaviour, such as using pedestrian crossings when the red light showed, riding against the flow of traffic or riding at speed on pavements. Unsurprisingly, e-scooters are more likely to be involved in minor accidents than are cyclists.
A key problem is that e-scooters are often viewed as a toy – like a foot scooter – rather than as a motor vehicle. They are therefore more likely to be used by youngsters, very often teenagers without a licence to drive of ride a motorbike and who lack experience of roads. It does not help that the legal position is not clear cut.
E-scooters are classed as motor vehicles under the Road Traffic Act 1988. That means that e-scooter riders should have crash helmets, a licence and insurance if they are to ride them in public spaces – such as roads. If an e-scooter rider causes serious harm to another person the incident will be investigated in the same way it would if the accident had involved a motorcycle or a car.
The penalties available to the police are as follows:
- Riding an e-scooter without insurance: Fixed Penalty notice, plus up to £100 fine and three to six penalty points on your licence
- Riding an e-scooter without the correct licence: Fixed Penalty Notice, plus up to £100 fine and three to six penalty points to be added to your licence when you get one.
- Riding on a pavement: Fixed Penalty Notice and possible £50 fine
- Using a mobile phone or other handheld mobile device while riding: £200 and six penalty points
- Riding through red lights: Fixed Penalty Notice, £100 fine and possible penalty points
- Drink driving: the same as if you were driving a car, you could face court-imposed fines, a driving ban and possible imprisonment
- Using an e-scooter in public in an antisocial manner: The e-scooter could be seized.
All of this can take place only if the police actually stop the e-scooter rider. Given how fast e-scooters can zip about this is not always easy. All beat officers will try to stop e-scooter riders when they can and will enforce the law.
In addition the Leicestershire police have a specific “Operation Pedalfast” designed to deal with the problems of e-scooters – and of e-bikes which have motors more powerful than the law allows. On days when Operation Pedalfast is taking place a special squad of 10 officers and PCSOs is deployed to an area where it is know that e-scooters and e-bikes are ridden recklessly. Some of the officers in plain clothes act as spotters and are in radio communication with uniformed officers who know in advance if a problematic rider is approaching.
For a first offence, Leicestershire Police issue a warning, which is logged on the central computer. The e-scooter or e-bike is then immobilised with cable-ties so that the rider has to carry it home. If a rider is stopped and has been given a warning on a previous occasion, the vehicle is seized.
On the 13 September I joined police officers in central Leicester on an Operation Pedalfast deployment. Watch the video HERE. https://twitter.com/i/status/1701961258876985615
I am currently monitoring how this approach is dealing with the issue.
