The EMJ says that retailers should be made responsible for informing customers of the legal restrictions surrounding the use of privately owned e-scooters, while public health campaigns should be employed to outline the risks.
Data from the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) suggests that payouts from uninsured e-bikes and e-scooters have surpassed £110 million since 2015, as private riders continue to flout restrictions en masse.
The MIB’s CEO, Angus Eaton, suggested there’s “a worrying gap between how commonly people use micromobility vehicles and how well they understand the law around them. Many people simply don’t realise that riding a privately owned e-scooter on public roads is illegal, and that means they’re riding uninsured.”
Yet conversely, the way to reduce private e-scooter injuries could be to make them road legal. Transport Secretary Hedi Alexander told the BBC’s Politics Midlands programme in February that “The genie’s out of the bottle when it comes to e-scooters.
“If you buy one yourself in somewhere like Halfords, you can only use that scooter by law on private land. But we do know that’s not happening, and that’s why we need to legislate.”
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