Sir, – Owen Keegan, chief executive of Dublin City Council, has warned of possible “conflict” between e-scooter users and other road users (News, May 15th). The relevant Bill governing the use of e-scooters wends its leisurely way through the Oireachtas. The number of privately owned e-scooters continues to rise and they remain unregulated and unrecognised in law. Once the Bill is enacted, it looks as if the local authorities will be ready to license private rental operators to provide e-scooters in urban areas.
The case of Stockholm’s experience with these scooters is worth considering. In July 2021, I spent 10 days in that beautiful city, and saw the scooters in action. At that time there were 14,000 scooters, run by four operators. Every morning they were lined up in neat rows along the footpaths, where the operators had placed them the night before. As the day went on they gradually became scattered randomly in all sorts of places, with some upright on their stands but many more lying where they had been discarded. They were left blocking apartment entrances. They were left on the footpath at pedestrian crossings. I saw a pair left standing neatly side by side in the middle of a road. They were left on lakeside paths, in parks, sprawled across footpaths. They were ridden on footpaths (illegal) and were ridden by two or more people at once (also illegal). Some were even parked neatly up against buildings and out of the way of everyone. These scooters are much bigger and heavier than the privately owned ones we have become accustomed to. I tried moving one and it was very difficult. Amazingly, in my 10 days there I saw only one scooter dumped. It had been placed in a rubbish bin along a picturesque lakeside walk, presumably put there by an irate walker.
The number of scooters continued to rise until the city took action and, from February 2022, limited them to 12,000, with eight operators. Rules were introduced to enforce parking of the scooters in designated areas, with penalties for operators not ensuring the riders became more responsible. I was in Stockholm again in July 2022 and the situation had noticeably improved. There were designated parking areas on footpaths and the scooters were parked in them, with very few left elsewhere.
Other cities have had similar problems and have also have taken action. Paris held a plebiscite last April and the voters overwhelmingly backed a complete ban, due to take effect in September (albeit the vote was taken with a very small percentage of registered voters participating.) Cities across Europe and the United States have introduced restrictions. Vulnerable people in particular, visually impaired people, older people, wheelchair users are disproportionately affected. It is not reasonable that scooter users should be able to on impulse drop the scooter at any place they wish. Scooter riders do not generally wear helmets and so put themselves at risk. (Young people riding what are in effect nimble and speedy electric motorbikes do not wear helmets either and these bikes will not be covered by the legislation.)
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Our authorities know of the well-reported problems that come with the unrestricted use of e-scooters. The operators will argue for the convenience of the citizens and the environmental benefits which accrue (the scooters would have to displace car journeys for any such benefit to occur, instead of the more likely displacement of cycling, walking or public transport use). If we are going to unleash them, we need proper enforceable regulations. We can’t leave it up to the users, large numbers of whom will ignore any restrictions on their behaviour. The operators, who are likely to be multinational companies with extensive experience of the business, have the technology to monitor the scooters (especially the location of the parked ones). Let them enforce the rules by way of fines or the banning or offenders or let them not operate here.
I don’t anticipate such regulation and look forward with trepidation to, at least, a couple of years before action is taken. – Yours, etc,
DES KELLY,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – Having read about the putative “conflict” between pedestrians, cyclists and scooter users when the Road Traffic Roads Bill is passed, please do not forget wheelchair users. We have much to contend with already, bikes and scooters ridden by youngsters on paths, bins, cars parked illegally on the footpath, etc. I hope it is not too much to ask that we be treated as equal to those mentioned in the article. – Yours, etc,
SHEILA MURPHY,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.