Electric Scooters: Coventry and Middlesbrough

(asked on 18th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of issues with the use of e-scooters in (1) Coventry, and (2) Middlesbrough; and what plans they have to pause the e-scooter rental trials until appropriate safeguards are introduced to protect pedestrians.


Answered by
Baroness Vere of Norbiton Portrait
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 2nd October 2020

There are no plans to pause national e-scooter trials, which are absolutely essential if we are to fully assess this new mode and inform longer term micromobility policy. Officials are in close and regular contact with local authorities and e-scooter operators in live e-scooter trial areas. We are encouraging rapid action be taken to respond to operational issues as soon as they arise and ensuring that any lessons from early implementation are applied in subsequent trials. For example, issues which arose during the first week of the Middlesbrough trial, caused by a small minority of users, were quickly resolved with licence verification software and improved geo-fencing technology.

Reticulating Splines