E-Scooters

Voi have launched their e-scooters in Coventry today. This is in conjunction with the West Midlands Combined Authority. The scooters should be ridden on roads (30mph max) and cycle lanes, not pavements. The maximum speed is 15mph, but is supposed to be limited to 5mph in pedestrian areas. I had a quick ride and was definitely doing more than 5mph in Millennium Place where they had their promotional tent. You need a smartphone to use the scooters and a driving licence to register. The cost is £1 per hire + 20p/minute. You can get a £4 credit when you first register. Currently they can only be used inside the ring road, but this will be expanded to other parts of the city. They can only be taken off hire where it is safe you park the cycle and you get a discount for using approved parking areas. A GPS system stops you riding them outside the area. Helmets are recommended, but not supplied.

e-Scooter trial halted (Coventry Telegraph). The app says it has been paused for 48 hours.

Can I ask a silly question (I know, ask a silly question, get a silly answer). What is the intended purpose for the e-scooter and who is it aimed at? Can't be shoppers, most of the shops are in pedestrian zones. Students? Do many have driving licences? When the novelty has worn off who are the intended users? Why launch it in a city which within the ring road is made up of pedestrian zones, lovely big areas that must be very tempting to ride round on a scooter? I am all for enterprise and new technology but these just seem to be another disaster like the Sinclair C5.

Hi Annewiggy, Not a silly question, but a silly answer! The target audience is the same as cycle hire schemes, people making short 1-2 mile journeys. Students living outside the centre (Far Gosford Street / Earlsdon) will probably be the main users, but not until the area is expanded and the licence requirement is dropped. The current trial area is too small for any meaningful journey. e-Scooters were only legalised in the UK in August (yes, people have been riding them for years). Currently they are classified as "Motor Vehicles" which is why you need a driving licence and insurance (arranged by the hire company). The intention is to classify them the same as electric bicycles (so no licence required), but this will require an act of parliament. They can be used on roads and cycle lanes, but currently not cycle tracks or bridleways. When I was given instruction I was told not to ride on the pavement, but no mention was made of the Precinct. The byelaw banning cycles from the Precinct doesn't apply to e-scooters until they are reclassified. I think the byelaw only applies to council-owned parts of the Precinct. I don't think it has been used for donkeys years, presumably because the fine is set at "forty shillings" and not worth prosecuting. The public space protection order only applies to skateboarding or cycling. Where you can cycle in the city centre is actually quite confusing. There are cycle paths which stop dead with no indication of how to proceed. Cycling is allowed in Broadgate as it is still a public highway (but not e-scooters until they are reclassified). I think Hertford Street is supposed to be pedestrians only, but there are no signs and with the removal of Nationwide they are now one space. There are "no cycling" signs at some entrances to the Precinct, but not others. Most of the signs that are there are too small and not legally valid (they should not have the red diagonal bar). The e-scooters have a "Geo-fence" GPS system which should stop them being used in areas where they are not allowed. This could be applied to the Precinct, but GPS is only accurate to 5m so can't be used for pavements. The app will only let you park (unhire) the scooters in designated areas (white on the map). Today I have seen motorcyclists doing wheelies on Sky Blue Way and Burnaby Road and there are tyre marks from a car doing a "donut" on the A45 Allesley Roundabout. Idiots will always find a way to be idiotic.

Anne, it's not a silly question at all. In fact, I've always wondered the same myself. And it's hardly new technology - it's basically a battery and an electric motor. I remember the TV ads for the C5, with the bowler-hatted John Cleese lookalike city gent on a C5 in the busy London traffic, a menace on the roads with limited vision and low speed. We were gifted a few C5s at work; they proved very unreliable and the design was flawed. Another crackpot idea. Hopefully e-scooters will die the same quick death. If not, I fear they will be as big a menace on roads and pavements as cyclists. A letter-writer in the Times asked why the wheels are so tiny, i.e. small diameter, given the atrocious pot-holed state of our roads. The reason is that by having microscopic wheels, which admittedly look silly, the whole thing is nearer the ground, so that when one of the wheels contacts a small stone or small dip in the surface, the rider has less distance to fall before hitting the deck, reducing the injury caused. It is an inbuilt safety feature. The percentage of motorists acting as idiots is much lower than the percentage of cyclist who do so (and this includes e-scooter riders); probably because they're more easily identified if the police decide to act. I've had a gang of young yobs illegally cycling on the pavement in Northampton pulling wheelies right in front of me to intimidate the public. I've seen a bloke on an e-scooter whizz across the pavement between pedestrians in Euston Road. Last week I had an encounter with a young lad who confronted me head-on on the pavement Bath Street, Leamington, and was forced to stop before hitting me. When I told him to get off the pavement, he quickly sped away before shouting some obscenity which included two words beginning with f. By that time he was too far away for my fist to contact his face. I was recently driving down Warwick Road near Central 6 when two young fellas on bikes, who were illegally riding on the pavement, suddenly cycled across the road in front of me with no warning. I expected my front nearside wheel to contact the second cyclist's rear tyre. It must have missed by no more than two inches.

Thank you both. I could see the point if it was possible to travel further. My walk in the 60's into town at lunchtime would have been a lot quicker, but that would mean that there would have to be a lot of scooters around every area of the outer city, and again the users would have to have a driving licence. If ever they make them so you don't need a driving licence I feel sorry for pedestrians! They have basically taken a child's toy, electrified it and then not quite known what to do with it. Is the trial back on?

My opinion, FWIW, anyone that thought this was a good idea is rather dim and out of touch with reality. That includes our wonderful council!

It's made the Times, on p4 today, a big article about complaints from walkers in Coventry: "Escooter trial hits the brakes..." (Cringe. I'm sick and tired of silly headers like "plans for rail improvement hit the buffers". Whinge over.) Someone posted on a friend's Facebook page earlier "they were still whizzing round town like lunatics today", referring to the escooter menace. PS when I mentioned Euston Rd earlier, I was referring to the one in Landun.

Trial is still suspended (and Coventry & Birmingham have disappeared off the Vo! web site). Unfortunately if you design a scheme so that the targeted users are frozen out, you are left with the idiots. e-Scooters have been in London (illegally) for about 5 years. They work well in Berlin where there are extensive cycle lanes and people are more respectful. I think a cycle hire would have been better for Coventry where the cycles have to be docked (and locked) at the end of hire. Low performance bikes won't attract the idiots. I've never seen anybody doing a wheelie on a hire bike.

A very concise and accurate summary.

I still think of a scooter as something you had when you were a child, probably for a birthday or Christmas that was soon grown out of. I can't help wondering what my brothers' reactions would have been if my mum had told them as teenagers that they couldn't have a bike, you can ride your scooter. The flack they would have taken from their friends. Now you see these older boys riding round on them. I also can't stop thinking when I see a hoodie as a "Pixie hood!"

E-scooter firm Voi blamed a suspended trial on the UK's 'antisocial behaviour issue' and said it will fit vehicles with identification plates. - Number plates to be fitted front & back. - Maximum speed reduced to 12.4 mph. - Limit of 5 mph in pedestrianised areas. It looks like they are coming back. Hopefully they will less attractive to the "idiots".