committees.parliament.uk/work/272/escooters/news/119723/legalise-escooters-says-transport-committee/
Strange the different approaches in different countries.
The UK is the last European country to allow privately owned scooters yet it suggests only "encouraging" helmet use. £100 fine here if you are not wearing both helmet and hi-vis jacket.
Using a scooter on a pavement will also get a similar fine.
So on the one hand the UK is strict in not [yet] permitting them, but on the other hand is seemingly planning to be quite relaxed about regulations when finally permitting them.
They should be allowed on roads and cycle paths and not on sidewalks.
Not wearing a helmet, not wearing a hi-vis and/or using them on a sidewalk should be penalised with fines.
Here we have troops of people employed by the councils. Very similar to traffic wardens except they can enforce all local regulations, which are all managed by fines. Of course here we do have ID cards and so the fine can be easily enforced and tied to you specifically. Given the UK population's fear and phobia and ID cards I guess that will remain a challenge for some time to come.
Insurance is not compulsory here, but it absolutely should be. As, in my opinion, it should be for bicycles.
I see the Transport Committee said licences should not be required. Well, I probably agree with that but permits should be. Something easy to get but which requires identification; the level of security of a blockbuster Membership Card would do.
Still loving mine, I probably do about 40/50km a week on it. Actually had to replace the rear tyre because it was bald, which I'm quite proud of.
As an aside, I dicked about with the firmware on mine, in particular relating to it's acceleration and top speed. Stock it's limited to 16mph / 25kph. It seemed to me that it might be more fun faster than that. So I didn't increase it much - 20mph /32 kph.
My learning from that was that 20mph on a perfectly smooth piece of straight tarmac is fine. Faster would be equally fine. But if you need to stop suddenly, hit a hole, a rock, or just a lump, or lose concentration it goes very wrong, very quickly and people can get hurt.
On balance 16mph is a very reasonable limit. I guess those with larger wheels may be safer at higher speeds, but it shouldn't be permitted. In reality variable speed limits is the way to go but without wardens and a method of identifying the riders, I don't really see that it can be controlled.
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