We’re not about to see the end of the long-running sore that is ‘UK e-scooter legislation’, but it looks like we might be seeing the beginning of the end. The law changes needed to allow currently illegitimate private battery-powered two-wheelers onto British roads, pavements and cycle lanes won’t be seen this side of a general election after the collapse of Liz Truss’s government last autumn killed off the planned Transport Bill. But the Department for Transport is aware it needs to get moving and has awarded a research contract to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to help flesh out plans for the legal use of private e-scooters in public places.
BDN spoke to Dr George Beard, head of new mobility at the TRL, to find out more about the research programme and what it’s aiming for. He first told us that the plan is to legislate for an entirely new class of vehicle – the LZEV – Low-speed Zero Emissions Vehicle – which will provide a legal ‘pigeonhole’ for e-scooters and other future mobility solutions to inhabit. That’s vital because up till now, UK law has insisted that anything with an engine or motor, outside a pedal-equipped bike or a mobility scooter, was a motor vehicle with the same legal requirements as a car or motorbike. With a new LZEV category, e-scooters will have a much less rigorous basis for use.
“TRL will be working with the DfT and the wider industry to help deliver a regulatory mechanism to encourage safe, sustainable and inclusive e-scooters,” said Dr Beard. “We believe that e-scooters can represent a genuine modal alternative for many transport users and, if implemented correctly, can be a valuable part of delivering the UK’s decarbonisation goals.”
The TRL research programme will mostly look at the hardware side of e-scooter design, with an eye on safety, sustainability, and accessibility – which means not only that disabled people can potentially use LZEV vehicles but that they won’t have an excessive impact on blind people, for example, in use.
But that may not mean hard and fast design rules for e-scooters, says Dr Beard. “There is a philosophical debate between having a set of regulations which are quite prescriptive – you must have 10in wheels, two disc brakes and a set maximum acceleration – versus something which is more outcome-focused. So if you have a defined performance in terms of stability and braking, and as long as you meet that, it doesn’t matter what your wheel size is. There’s an interesting trade-off there and potential benefits in terms of innovation.”
Summing up the research aims, he told us, “We’re trying to get a system that’s not quite as strict and burdensome as type approval, but then at the other end of the spectrum, we have the e-bike world with a sort of self-certification. Maybe there’s something in between that feels right for e-scooters, but we haven’t quite worked out exactly how that would operate. We’re keeping those objectives in mind and trying to come up with something that’s as proportionate as possible that works for the industry, but also helps drive good outcomes in terms of safety, sustainability, and consistency. That’s the challenge ahead.”
TRL’s research won’t be looking at other areas of e-scooter legislation, though – issues around where LZEV/e-scooters will be permitted to be used, maximum speeds, age or training restrictions, protective clothing and the like will all be outside its scope – though any relevant findings will be passed on, says Dr Beard.
The research programme is set to run until February 2024 – but we’ll still have to wait until after the next general election for a Transport Bill and any changes in e-scooter law, meaning mid-2025 at the very earliest. In the meantime, expect the current rental trial schemes to continue, the bickering between fans and foes of e-scooters to get even louder, and that long-running legislative sore to continue festering away.