Further details have emerged about this summer’s escootershare UK “revolution”.
- Capped at 12.5mph – below the 15.5mph for pedelec.
- You’ll need a provisional or full driving licence to use them.
- Only escootershare for now – personal escooters are not (yet) to be legalised.
- Bicycle-style helmets to be recommended but not mandated.
- Will be able to legally go where bicycles can go (so cycle tracks/lanes, roads but not pavements except where marked).
- Councils will be able to dictate local policy, e.g. mandatory hub parking.
No word yet from potential operators themselves. One assumes that Lime and Bird will be the obvious two to start, in London, although neither may be in an expansion mood following painful lockdown-related layoffs recently. Bird has run the only escootershare in London and indeed the UK, so far – a small (and expensive – 25p/minute!) operation of around 15 bikes going between three hubs on the nominally private land of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London.