What is the Status of the Electric Scooter in UK Law?
Electric scooters, or e-scooters as they are commonly referred, are everywhere. Many of us have encountered them as a part of our daily travels, whether being sped past on a pavement or making way in a motor vehicle. Some of us are early adopters, having bought our own units to travel around with greater ease.
But e-scooters are not on firm legal ground; what is the law, and why?
Key Safety Concerns
Before looking at the specific legalities of e-scooter use in the UK, it is important to understand the wider conversation around their growing popularity and usage – and issues relevant to their regulation. The explosion in both popularity and commercial availability was relatively swift; not only might regulators and civil authorities be slow to catch up, but much data on usage and safety remains to be seen.
That said, some patterns have undeniably emerged regarding e-scooter safety in recent months and years, which indicate some justification for any hesitancy behind changes or updates to existing UK law – which we will examine shortly. Pedestrian injuries relating to e-scooters had more than quadrupled between 2020 and 2022, with 63 people seriously injured in a scooter incident last year. Joshua Hughes of Bolt Burdon Kemp identified the potential causes for this spike:
“While most e-scooters have an average speed of 20 mph, some can reach even higher speeds without any human effort. They are also small and quiet, so difficult to see and hear coming. Many have the tendency to view e-scooters as a toy rather than a vehicle with the potential to cause serious injury. This can lead to unsafe behaviour and, inevitably, more accidents.”
The rise in injuries is not just a problem with regard to pedestrian safety; it also threatens to increase the necessity and incidence of personal injury claims, as injured parties seek compensation for injury. The claims process can be a long one, and can create additional strife for injured parties despite positive compensatory outcomes.
The UK Law on Electric Scooters
With the increased likelihood of injury on UK roads clear, the government’s hard-line position on e-scooters at present makes sense. As it stands, overarching guidance referring to ‘powered transport’ indicates that e-scooters and other motorised devices are subject to the same laws as motor vehicles; since e-scooters do not meet the safety and insurance standards required for road legality, and cannot legally be operated on pavements or cycle lanes, they are effectively illegal to use anywhere but private land.
Looking Ahead
However, this does not exclude e-scooter from potential adoption as part of a wider restructuring of UK law. Despite the illegality of riding them, rider numbers are on the rise – something inevitable, that cannot be quelled by a crackdown on law. Meanwhile, metropolitan areas are trialling their own e-scooter schemes, wherein city-owned e-scooters are rented and ridden as with similar bicycle schemes. These trials have been extended until May 2024, indicating a positive outcome for inner-city transport.
