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Concerns over the safety of electric scooter trials are rising in Bristol
22 September 2021
In a motion presented ahead of a full council meeting on September 7 2021, Bristol City Councillor for the ward of Frome Vale Lesley Alexander said "[Bristol City] Council is conscious of increasing complaints around road and pedestrian safety, an apparent lack of policing or enforcement, silent scooters being ridden on pavements to create new hazards and nuisance as well as clutter where motors are simply discarded in a haphazard fashion.
"In addition, doubts remain over whether e-scooters are as good for the environment as proponents claim or that this kind of ‘active’ travel is really something that should be encouraged.
"An entirely unregulated, free-for-all system would be a recipe for chaos on our roads and pavements."
Data from Avon and Somerset Police shows 237 incidents involving e-scooters were recorded in Bristol between December 2020 and March 2021.
Recent research from dashcam company Nextbase also suggests that e-scooters could be involved in up to 200,000 accidents in the UK by the end of 2021.
A spokesperson for Bristol’s e-scooter provider Voi said, “Far from allowing e-scooters to operate unregulated, Bristol and cities across the UK have one of the most regulated e-scooter pilots in Europe. Unlike private e-scooters, shared rental scooters are the only way that riders can legally use e-scooters in the UK as we are part of the approved Government shared e-scooter rental scheme.
“Being part of this scheme means Voi must follow strict rules to ensure e-scooters are safely introduced across the UK. For example, it works with local councils to identify the most appropriate locations for users to park, mark zones where users are allowed to ride in the city, follow Government guidelines to ensure its e-scooter are up to standard and safe for UK roads, as well as limit who can and cannot ride on them.
“Where there are gaps in regulations, Voi takes its role as the industry leader in the UK and Europe extremely seriously and actively works with its partners to lead the way, such as introducing industry-leading e-scooter safety innovations.
"Since Voi launched three years ago, riders have taken more than 21 million rides in total across the 11 countries we operate in. Our internal data shows that our service was involved in zero fatal crashes and 105 incidents causing major or severe injuries from January to June 2021. This means that 0.0005% of all rides in this period resulted in a crash with major or severe injury”.
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