E Scooters > on the road

[DRM]

York is one of the legal hire experiment areas and there are loads of them. We've just had our first driving ban handed out for using one while under the influence.

I’m not surprised I can see that local opposition to these could quite easily get rid of them, I was fed up with the stupidity on display during a day visit, used correctly they could be a force for good, but that’s the problem, any chump can hire it and ride like a moron and dump it, with no concern for the bad feeling the hirer leaves behind them

 

[stoatsngroats]

They certainly seem to be on the increase here in West Sussex.
I worry about the insurance situation, and cannot hope that they’ll ever be properly insured, so we seem to have a problem.
If. Hit a person on an e-scooter, and they have injuries, what will my insurance company do? I’m fully como insured, so I think the damage will be covered, but what about up the injured party…?
It’s a worry I think, and whilst could be interested in taking up this past time… but maybe not actually!

 

[Rusty Nails]

Look on the positive side.

The more e-scooters,and to some extent e-bikes, on our roads, the less motorists and the press will moan about leg-powered bikes.

 

[sasquath]

They certainly seem to be on the increase here in West Sussex.
I worry about the insurance situation, and cannot hope that they’ll ever be properly insured, so we seem to have a problem.
If. Hit a person on an e-scooter, and they have injuries, what will my insurance company do? I’m fully como insured, so I think the damage will be covered, but what about up the injured party…?
It’s a worry I think, and whilst could be interested in taking up this past time… but maybe not actually!

Same as with hitting pedestrian or cyclist.
If they're at fault only way to recover costs is through civil lawsuit against them.
In case f a car driver fault same applies, civil lawsuit, with insurance covering basics.

Adding unregulated electric "something" doesn't change anything here.

If pedestrians feel terrified by e scooters how do they feel about runners? Comparable speed and huffing and puffing like some wild beasts!!!

so anything with handle bars should be able to manage the rider's weight and so stopp far more quickly

From my limited time on them, e-scooters are marginally better at stopping than "hoverboards" or electric skateboards.

 

[dodgy]

Seeing lots of 30 (maybe even 40mph) ebikes being ridden with no pedalling, especially near Chester. The large black MX looking things with the main triangle filled with battery. Worse still, they've discovered the NCN and I'm seeing more and more of them on there including very fast e-scooters.
The police need to make a few high profile crushings.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

The police need to make a few high profile crushings.

Yep. As Borat said.. "sentence to death by crushing".

 

[Solocle]

I’m not surprised I can see that local opposition to these could quite easily get rid of them, I was fed up with the stupidity on display during a day visit, used correctly they could be a force for good, but that’s the problem, any chump can hire it and ride like a moron and dump it, with no concern for the bad feeling the hirer leaves behind them

At the same time punishing drink riding an escooter that does 12 mph seems ludicrous. It's not a car. You can cycle while drunk and the penalties only kick in when you're so utterly smashed that you can't ride in a straight line... and even then, are minor in comparison. And I'll reasonably often break 50 mph on my bike.

Going after private escooters? Likely a prosecution for an uninsured motor vehicle. Which makes getting insurance on your car virtually impossible. Thus I suspect that car-centric punishments for e-scooters are actually putting uninsured cars on the roads.

There was the chap back in 2010 who got banned from driving for drink driving... a 4 mph child's toy. Silly, yes. But if that earns a 3 year ban, close passes should be an automatic lifetime ban.
https://metro.co.uk/2010/04/19/paul-huttons-barbie-car-adventure-leads-to-drink-driving-ban-249244/

 

[Drago]

Thats why anyone caught disqualified driving should automatically go to prison. They merrily go at it because the consequences are so minor.

And insurance offences should result in an automatic ban, not just the typical 6 points.

Its the punishments for repeat offenders that are wrong, not the prosecution of escooter who are breaking the law - its right and proper that any motorised law breaker gets stiffed, but those who continue to break the law should be given a lesson they will understand.

 

[DRM]

At the same time punishing drink riding an escooter that does 12 mph seems ludicrous. It's not a car. You can cycle while drunk and the penalties only kick in when you're so utterly smashed that you can't ride in a straight line... and even then, are minor in comparison. And I'll reasonably often break 50 mph on my bike.

Going after private escooters? Likely a prosecution for an uninsured motor vehicle. Which makes getting insurance on your car virtually impossible. Thus I suspect that car-centric punishments for e-scooters are actually putting uninsured cars on the roads.

There was the chap back in 2010 who got banned from driving for drink driving... a 4 mph child's toy. Silly, yes. But if that earns a 3 year ban, close passes should be an automatic lifetime ban.
https://metro.co.uk/2010/04/19/paul-huttons-barbie-car-adventure-leads-to-drink-driving-ban-249244/

Getting banned for driving a child's toy, the important bit is that the idiot had modified it, the article unfortunately doesn't say how it was modified, but it seems he somehow has made it a mechanically propelled vehicle in the eyes of the law, as they say beer in, sense out.
As for E-Scooters from what I saw of them in York they were being hired and ridden in an antisocial manner with no consideration other than the thrills of the hirer, the idiot minority will see these things banned.

 

[alex_cycles]

the idiot minority will see these things banned.

They're already banned!

 

[DRM]

They're already banned!

Wrong, we are discussing the legal hired ones as seen in York

 

[vickster]

Wrong, we are discussing the legal hired ones as seen in York

The OP is in Wales though. He says there is no legal hire scheme in his town (yet)

 

[DRM]

The OP is in Wales though. He says there is no legal hire scheme in his town (yet)

Strange the avatar says Oxfordshire

 

[alex_cycles]

Wrong, we are discussing the legal hired ones as seen in York

I take your point, but was talking more generally than the "legal hired ones as seen in York" you'd narrowed it down to, which is more in line with the original post.
Some of the schemes have been renewed as people have already said. But if the schemes are not renewed, that would not be a ban. escooters are already banned outside of the schemes (except on private land with the landowner's permission).

 

[alex_cycles]

Strange the avatar says Oxfordshire

I'm not the OP