Why were Esooters banned in the UK

Why were Escooters banned anyway?

It is a complex story. Mostly down to the huge presssure the UK legisators were under to include as much of vehicles, two wheels, electric or otherwise as a taxed and insuranced vehicle if used on the public roads.

So in around 2017/18 Escooters started to be mass produced and the lithium battery reached the performance good enough to carry for long periods the weight of human. The exposure of the UK law become apparent when the UK government had to provide a license to circumnaviagate the law for the corporate rental firms. While they figure out what to do with this new piece of travel technology.

A few years on and we are finally at the beginning of the end of the consultation period that the Government were using to delay getting on with changing the law. A lot has happened in the few years. A few deaths, a lot of rides and a wild number of private escooters bought and used illegally on UK roads.

The UK escooter firms were mostly large American and European corporates who were able to muscle in on the council led deployment of the Escooter trails across the country.

In the percieved poor behaviour of escooters who seem to ignore all the rules of the road. Rules of the road that are specifically designed for the car. This aminosity was in hindsight inevitable while the Government dragged their feet.

Other forms of transport have taken similar pathways into public acceptance and wholesale use. Aeroplanes were accuseed of being hugely hazardous. Some, according to the Specatotor magazine, even thought high speed trains would cause mass suffocation.

So now, in 2022 finally the Government have installed the legisation and regulation of Escooters onto the UK roads. Finally the Government will prise open this new micromobility industry. Remove the overtly corporate bias into entry into the market. Blowing open a world of innovation and improvement of choice around the last 5 miles of both human transport but also parcel delivery.

Here at Micromobility news we believe the Government needs to be as brave as they can to remove as much regulation as possible around these light weigh low powered personal transporters.

Adding escooters along with the new higher powered Cargo bikes onto the highway code. Allowing them to use cycle lanes along with the road. This will start to make the idea that the road is for these new form of micromobility.

While trying as reasonably possible to keep these micromobility forms of transport off pedistrin only spaces, E.g. the pavement. Though there are plenty of areas that biycles are allowed.

We believe that this de regulation fits well into the levelling up agenda. Along with the cost of living crisis, the Micromobility revolution will radically shake up the cost of the powered ubiquituous travel that cars previously had a monopology on.