e-scooter trial, London

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The law is pointless unless it is enforced.

Reality - the police do not routinely enforce the law so far as either electric bikes or scooters are concerned. They may do in the event of a serious accident - otherwise infractions are ignored.

Police have lots of other pressures on them and need to prioritise. Failing to wear a helmet and riding on the pavement doesn't get high up the list.

Yep, as I noted above, I personally witnessed dozens of scooters zip past the police just this week.
 
My favourites are these things, there's a guy who rides one of these at 30ish (edit must be 20ish if it is that brand) down the A2 (Old Kent Road)

Onewheel // Future Motion

Scooters are just everywhere. I did raise my eyebrows at some bloke doing the school-run on one (child standing in front, him behind) - again on the A2.
 
If I'd been the one to be mown down on a pavement? Yep.
Oh come now Dave, nobody was talking, especially you about anyone mowing down anybody, your point was the legality of riding them in the first place. Were it about accidents you'd be out there shouting about how dangerous cars are, given they kill or seriously maim an average of 5 people a day.
And that's not hypothetical, that's a fact.
Why not leave it to the law to decide. If they want to start prosecuting scooter riders you can be sure as fate they will, the point that they don't suggests it's currently a grey area.

Dont read the Daily Mail do you ?. :LOL:
 
It's not a grey area it's just that policing budgets are beyond the bone and this sort of illegality is (understandably) irrelevant in the priorities.
 
Oh come now Dave, nobody was talking, especially you about anyone mowing down anybody, your point was the legality of riding them in the first place. Were it about accidents you'd be out there shouting about how dangerous cars are, given they kill or seriously maim an average of 5 people a day.
What source are you quoting there please?
 
The law is pointless unless it is enforced.

Reality - the police do not routinely enforce the law so far as either electric bikes or scooters are concerned. They may do in the event of a serious accident - otherwise infractions are ignored.

Some years I was turning right across a roundabout on a dual carriageway. Reasonable weather, but I'd come out of fog so still had headlights on. A young girl coming the other way was intent on having a laugh with her mate and forgot the roundabout existed - I was signalling, I saw her coming, realised she would hit me and tried to accelerate away, but didn't have the ponies. She T boned me, stoving the side of the car in 18". Someone called the police, and I asked the copper if she would be done for careless driving or driving without due care. Oh, we won't be taking any action, he said, because no one was hurt. By the bye, surely, I said - if I'd had a passenger they'd be lucky to walk again. Yeah, but you didn't, did you, he replied.
 
Some years I was turning right across a roundabout on a dual carriageway. Reasonable weather, but I'd come out of fog so still had headlights on. A young girl coming the other way was intent on having a laugh with her mate and forgot the roundabout existed - I was signalling, I saw her coming, realised she would hit me and tried to accelerate away, but didn't have the ponies. She T boned me, stoving the side of the car in 18". Someone called the police, and I asked the copper if she would be done for careless driving or driving without due care. Oh, we won't be taking any action, he said, because no one was hurt. By the bye, surely, I said - if I'd had a passenger they'd be lucky to walk again. Yeah, but you didn't, did you, he replied.

See in a way that sounds rather sensible to me, prosecute on the outcome, not the potential outcome. It's the same with speeding or drink driving, if you don't have an accident, should you be punished?
 
I had a similar incident - to add insult to injury the insurance companies judged me to be at fault - apparently the other driver simply reported that I had pulled out in front of her as I entered the roundabout.

That she was going far faster than she should have, and appeared to be racing another car was irrelevant - no way I could prove it!
 
must admit I want an e-scooter myself, it would be a lot better than a bike in many aspects, biking on roads is very unsafe, too many bad drivers on the roads.
 
What source are you quoting there please?

I find it odd youre now querying this, it is clear motor vehicles cause many deaths and injuries. Sounds like you're trying to split hairs.
Suffice to say fatalities UK - 1800 average thanks to motor vehicles, 30,000 average serious injuries, and 125,000 slight injuries.
I expect scooters are in the 'slight' injuries somewhere in tiny numbers, more likely they are the victims.
 
Difficult question - what happens when two vehicles collide.

One weighs in at 1500kg with 4 wheels, seat belted occupants, protected by airbags, surrounded by a shell designed to absorb severe shocks to the structure.

The other weighs in at 100kg (with rider), two unstable wheels, no seatbelts (cos they are standing up), no airbags (nowhere to fix them), no crumple zones (just flesh and bone).

Rationally one would choose to put bikes and scooters on the pavement where collisions are likely to take place with similarly proportioned pedestrians. As on the road, all pavement users should take responsibility for their behaviour and carry insurance.

What we do need however is more cycle and scooter lanes. Probably won't happen!
 
I find it odd youre now querying this, it is clear motor vehicles cause many deaths and injuries.
Apologies, I re-read your earlier post and see you're talking about cars / motor vehicles.
I mis-read that as 5 deaths caused by e-scooters, hence the question.
 
What we do need however is more cycle and scooter lanes. Probably won't happen!

I agree, we'd need some serious money injected into it though to create an amsterdam style system, the reality is though they just do about 100 meters of bike lane then run out of money and think they are doing a great job, which in my opinion is worse than doing nothing, either do it properly or not at all.
 
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