Escooters: Pros and cons, by council member for climate change

Cllr Dixie Darch has outlined the rules - and the benefits - surrounding the use of the escooters, including in trials in Taunton and Minehead.

Below are her thoughts...

"E-scooters, pretty much Marmite on two wheels for the love and loathing they elicit, have hit the media again as pedestrians express their concern about the risks and the police clamp down on misuse.

But let’s not overlook the rationale for their introduction and the benefits of low carbon transport in towns.

First some facts:

• It is illegal to use privately owned e scooters other than on private land with the permission of the land owner
• It is illegal to ride e scooters, including the yellow Zipp scooters, which form part of the Government trial in Taunton and Minehead, on the pavement
• Yellow Zipp mobility scooters can only be used by people over 16 with a full or provisional licence on permitted roads, cycle lanes and cycle tracks

So what we can do to prevent misuse?

Report misuse giving the date, time and location. A photo is useful. If you catch sight of the registration number even better. Zipp staff can track the registered user and take action, issuing a warning in the first instance but persistent offenders will be banned.

Police intervention will help spread the zero tolerance message. E-scooters are geo-fenced, meaning they are controlled centrally so they will not operate outside designated zones. Zipp Mobility take safety very seriously indeed.

Is every user making a nuisance of themselves?

Absolutely not. Our data shows that e-scooters are used regularly by commuters. They have become a new form of sustainable public transport at no cost to the local taxpayer. To date there have been 557,538 e-scooter rides clocking up 127,747 miles in Taunton and Minehead. The overwhelming majority of these users have been responsible.

What is the future of e scooters?

The Department of Transport has extended the trial to March 31 2022 to obtain more data due to the impact of the pandemic. They will then decide whether it becomes a pilot scheme or if it is be discontinued.

What’s the point of e-scooters?

Both the International Panel for Climate Change and the International Energy Agency are clear that the decarbonisation of transport is imperative given the climate emergency.

There’s no one solution to this: transition to electric vehicles, a reliable and affordable public transport system, improved active travel infrastructure and car share schemes will all play a role. And e-scooters may well be part of that transition. Research shows that a percentage of e-scooter journeys would otherwise have been taken by car, so they help to reduce traffic congestion, air pollution and carbon emissions.

The estimated carbon removed as a result of the trial thus far is 17.5 tonnes to date (2.2 for Minehead and 15.3 for Taunton).

What about the risk?

Of course pedestrians are vulnerable when they encounter riders on the pavement and there’s no denying escooters carry a risk. Which is why we need to continue to be vigilant to stamp out misuse. But we also need to look at relative risk.

Admittedly it’s early days, but so far there have been four escooter related deaths in the UK. The Road Safety charity, Brake, calculates 1,850 UK road deaths and serious injuries per annum since 2012, an average of five a day.

The highest risk group by far is motorcyclists, followed by cyclists, then pedestrians. A 2018 Public Health report estimated that nearly 250 people a year could be dying prematurely from air pollution in Somerset.

Since then, a study in the Journal of Cardiovascular Research suggests that 14% of UK Covid deaths can be attributed to long term exposure to air borne particulates, which increase the risk of contracting Covid. So cutting pollution from traffic is really important.

Finally, if we fail to act on the climate emergency then the risks discussed here will be well and truly eclipsed by a calamity far greater.

CLLR DIXIE DARCH
Executive member for climate change, SWT