Electric Scooter Law: EVERYTHING WE KNOW

Is there a glimmer of hope yet?

Join me as we delve into the latest updates, legislations, and repercussions surrounding electric scooters in the UK. In this video, we want to help you understand your rights and responsibilities as an e-scooter rider! 🛴🇬🇧

Keep in the know – subscribe to our channel for more updates to come 🤓⚡️

0:00 We’re in limbo…
0:23 Current UK law
1:40 What counts as an ‘E-scooter’?
3:44 So what NOW?
6:01 The consequences
7:15 What about transport?
7:45 Glimmers of hope!
8:53 What do YOU want to happen?

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What’s up Electro heads it is 2024 and we are still stuck in E scooter legislation limbo here in the UK so it’s been a while since we made a video on E scooter legality so today I’m going to run you through everything that we know to date about electric scooter law in

The UK and what that means for you whether you’re an e scooter owner aspiring ecooter owner or somebody who likes to hop on a rental currently here in the UK it is legal to buy an e- scooter however you cannot ride your e scooter on public roads you can ride

Your e scooter on private land with the land owner’s permission rental electric scooters are the only way to legally ride an electric scooter on public roads or in other public places in the UK so the government States this is because they want to gather as much information as possible through trials with

Operators like voy and bird other Rec scoter operators available who were chosen after an open and competitive process to assess their ability to meet strict safety requirements and high operating standards for example the scooter batteries can be monitored to ensure they meet fire safety regulations E Scooters available through government

Trials have certain requirements their speed is limited and users must have at least a provisional driver’s license helmets are not required by law but some operators do reward you for wearing one with things like discounts and while safety is very important rentals hold the limitations of localized use not

Being able to complete your desired Journey from door to door having to pay per ride which can soon make it more expensive than actually just buying your own and can be found just ring across Pavements and recently it was announced that these trials were to be extended

Until May 2026 which isn’t a good signifier for a change in legislation for privately owned electric scooters so what is the current legislation for privately owned electric scooters why don’t you hit that like button to find out go on just just right there go one that’s it nice one nice one E Scooters

Are classed as motor vehicles under the road traffic Act of 1988 1988 you may have also had the term powered transporter used to cover a variety of Novel and emerging personal transport devices which are powered by a motor including electric scooters Judy Harrison the then parliamentary under

Secretary of State at the department for transport stated in response to Jim Shannon’s request for a summary as Motor Vehicles having fewer than four wheels and weighing less than 410 kg unladen E Scooters are classed as motorcycles as defined in section5 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and because of their low speed

Within the subass of moped this means that es scooters have to abide by the same road traffic legislation as mopeds and motorcycles so it would only be legal to use them on public roads if they could meet the same requirements as Motor Vehicles like having insurance tax a license registration which in practice

Is currently virtually impossible right now you can’t even get Road insurance for your privately owned electric scooter because they don’t meet the motor vehicle requirements and it’s all just a hot mess laws and categorization from the 80s are being being applied to this modernday Tech it is madness in

Fact I want you to drop me a comment and write it’s Madness Alish because it is let’s let them know and it’s bonus points if you spell my name right but it is frustrating because here at Electra heads we know what good the regulation of power Transporters could bring and

It’s not just for reducing pollution and tailpipe emissions and easing congestion but with individuals who have mobility issues they could really benefit from this simplified lightweight setup that E Scooters can offer if you want to find out more on this you can check my video

Right here where I speak to Neil who has spinal bifida and uses an e scooter to help him get around and Rob who uses an electric unicycle their stories are inspiring and welcome positivity to what can usually be quite negative coverage from biased media looking for shockworthy headlines so here we are

Limited to rental electric scooters for public use now bearing in mind legislation was amended in July 2020 to allow for rental e scooter trials in selected areas and we’re coming up to nearly 4 years of data collection and not much else so we’re essentially lagging behind the whole of Europe while

Paris recently did a complete 180 and band rented electric scooters which was a worrying sign of the future of E Scooters in France that alone Europe but instead the effect has been to trigger a massive boom in sales of private electric scooters which are legal there now the Queen’s speech in 20122 actually

Mentioned E Scooters in the transport Bill stating they plan to introduce legislation to allow the government to regulate E Scooters in the 2022 to 23 session the government would then be able to stipulate that all e scooters sold met certain standards concerning speed power lights among other things

Now look that’s great we’re all really excited this is exactly what we wanted to see bringing standers to keep dodgy E Scooters out and get quality e- rides on the roads but times passed we got a couple of new Prime Ministers and it looked like e scooter legislation was

Pushed to the bottom of the pile of the to-do list a year later in 2023 we were primed for more news but there was no mention of new laws in the King speech meaning legislation is delayed looking through the King speech today there is not a single mention of E scoter or micro

Ability however the government has instead promised to extend existing trials till May 2026 it told the BBC this was to gather further Evidence as the technology develops to ensure any future legislation balances safety user accountability and market growth but the problem is this doesn’t stop unregulated batteries and substandard erid from

Being sold and bought here which have been the driving force behind the damning media reports on the rise of battery fires as of late education is needed about dodgy products that are giving this industry a bad name now will covers everything you need to know about

The recent rise of Eide fires and what we can all do to avoid it happening with some very simple tips so you should check it out right here but for now E Scooters occupy a mysteriously gray area in UK law being legal to buy but illegal to use in public it’s estimated there

Are now 1 million private electric scooters owned here and that’s with everything going on right now there’s a real demand for these vehicles but we now need the right regulation what that is I’ll come on to that shortly all right then keep your secret since their rapid growth when sales boomed through

2020 over the years we’ve witnessed major crackdowns from police forces across the country to apprehend e scooter riders not only on roads but on Pavements riding a powered scooter on a pavement as with pedal Cycles is an offense under Section 72 of the highway act 1835 the police can deal with illegal

Ecooter use by fixed penalty notices and penalty points for no insurance not in accordance or riding on pavement offenses section 165 of the road trafficed Act 1988 provides the power to seize privately owned electric scooters for driving without insurance or a driving license it is for the officer

Dealing with an incident to investigate and to decide upon the appropriate offense and enforcement Action Now many of you have reached out to us about this telling us your own stories NHS workers keyw workers commuters trying to get to their jobs being slapped with a hefty fine getting their es scoter seized and

Given six points on their license I actually spoke to Kyla who relied on her electric scooter to commun mute and one day got caught by the popo you can watch that video right here whilst privately owned electric scooters remain unregulated anyone can be stopped and reprimanded by the police so unless you

Want six points on your license for now it’s either rental Scooters or electric bikes it should be flagged that in recent years train companies have gotten stricted with electric scooters on their services after an e scooter fire broke out on the London underground’s district line the allowance for them to be

Carried as luggage on the Underground if they are folded was soon revoked now ESC scooters and one wheels and unicycles can’t be taken on London tfl Services train companies across the UK have also followed suit so if you’re unsure best thing to do is just to check their FAQ

Or reach out to customer support that being said legal ebikes are generally still allowed so all these years later from when I first started covering the state of e scoter regulation it feels like barely any progress has been made however there has been recently a glimmer of hope electric scooters could

Have their very own category of vehicle in the UK housting the dinosaur 1988 categorization they currently have the DFT has announced plans to create a new low-speed zero emission vehicle category to encourage the growth and Adoption of light electric vehicles and Es scooters will be the first vehicles to be

Included in their own subcategory so TRL won a DFT technical research contract supported by wmg at the University of Warick to establish what the future technical requirements of escooters should be to ensure that they are as safe as possible for Riders and other Road users are inclusive for people with

Disabilities and are making a net positive contribution towards reducing carbon emissions the project is estimated to take approximately 10 months it started in July of 2023 so the results will be out by May 20124 the thing is the DFT will require a transport Bill to provide regulatory

Powers for new lzs so we’re not out the words just yet but if and hopefully when legislation hits the UK how should it look should H be m atory what should the minimum age of Rider be should we have license plates or take a theory test to

Qualify I actually put this question out to you lot in our community Tab and the responses are just as mixed as you would expect but overall a lot of you are saying the same things about helmets being mandatory being at least 16 plus and doing some kind of theory or road

Test now personally I think we should treat them like we do ebikes like many other countries already do in Europe I do think we should be able to go up to a speedier 20 mph for E rides in general just like most inner city speed limits dictate anything less and bigger

Vehicles get tety that you’re slowing them down and this can lead to more dangerous Maneuvers like tailgating and close overtakes as I have experienced being limited to 15.5 mph on my legal ebikes I do also like the idea of different categories depending on the motor and speed as some of you have also

Mentioned for anything that is more powerful I’d say it’s fair to probably require insurance but a bigger motor doesn’t automatically mean it’s a danger it actually just means it can take on inclines better and carry heavier Riders without strain but the European transport and Safety Council and UK parliamentary advisory Council for

Transport safety that’s a mouthful published a report in early 2023 on safer technical standards for E Scooters and safer e scooter usage rules in Europe stating a 20 km an hour factory set speed limit a minimum wheel size of 12 in a ban on passengers and pavement riding compulsory helmets mandatory

Insurance and a minimum age of 16 if you’re still here you should definitely hit that subscribe button by the way I’ll be keeping my eyes on any changes and updating accordingly so definitely subscribe to stay in the no it is disappointing that there are over 100 cities across Europe North America Asia

Who have already embraced E Scooters and yet here we are we’re still waiting there is clear demand to further adopt microb ability in the UK with more than 34 million e scooter rides having been taken place since 2020 electric scooters could provide a safe relatively cheap and much more environmentally friendly

Method of transort sport than single occupancy car trips they can reduce tailpipe emissions massively and open up independent travel for a lot of people that can’t afford a car but don’t have the space to store a bike I am still hopeful that legislation will come but

We do need to keep talking about it and letting local MPS know how important it is that they are regulated to stop shy E Scooters being sold reduce those fires and get more people commuting on Greener transport but for now Lucky Heads peace out bre easy Yeah