I’m not a bansturbator, but by God, I detest the e-scooter fad.
A cancer survivor who nearly lost his foot in a brutal e-scooter accident is one of the millions in the UK calling for them to be banned from the streets, MailOnline can reveal.
Two-thirds of Brits want e-scooters banned from public roads, while three-quarters think a driving licence and insurance should be a requirement to use one, a survey by the National Accident Helpline found.
Cancer survivor Luke Barratt, from Barnsley, was in remission for leukaemia when he was struck with life-changing injuries after an e-scooter accident on October 26, 2021.
The 32-year-old’s mobility had been limited by his leukaemia but he hoped using an e-scooter would mean he could visit family living nearby.
However, while riding the scooter he misjudged the kerb and was thrown to the floor. His right foot was almost completely torn off from his ankle.
Actually, idiots like Barrett are precisely why people want to see them banned. They are generally ridden by people behaving like morons with complete disregard for the rules of the road and other road users. They are motor vehicles, which is why you need your driving licence to hire one of the official ones.
That, however, does not seem to deter piss-poor behaviour. Add to that the fact that they are inherently unstable with tiny wheels that will get caught in potholes or ridges and you have the prefect recipe for life changing injuries.
When training people to ride motorcycles, I insist on proper footwear that protects and supports the ankle, because a significant number of motorcycle injuries are to the lower leg* and the ankle is particularly vulnerable. But you don’t need a CBT to ride a scooter, just get the app, pay your money and you are off – assuming you are going down the legal route. This is why accidents among novice motorcyclists rose so rapidly during the eighties along with the rise in traffic density, leading to the introduction of CBT. Because, back in the day, that’s how we learned to ride motorcycles. Get on it and go play with the traffic. We are seeing exactly the same phenomenon with e-scooters today.
If you are not bothered by all that legal stuff, not even a driving licence – just buy your scooter, ride like a cretin and terrorise everyone on the road, although you can lose your licence if caught committing a road traffic offence using one (assuming that you have one). Some of those illegal ones can travel at fairly high speed as I observed when one of them wove between me and then my students, causing all of us to take avoiding action, before hurtling off well above the 30mph speed limit.
So, while not a bansturbator, I recognise that the roads are a shared resource and a basic minimum level of competence is a necessary part of avoiding harm to oneself and others, which is why we have testing and training for users of motor vehicles. It isn’t perfect by any means, but it is better than what exists for e-scooters. Now, don’t even get me started on the Deliveroo riders.
*This is why Martin Bangemann went on his ill-informed, moronic crusade to have all motorcycles fitted with leg protectors back in the late eighties and early nineties and this is why I learned to despise the EU and its unelected bureaucracy.
Nor am I. But I’m a (classical) liberal, not an anarchist. Sometimes we need laws. These things are, literally, motor vehicles. They should be licenced as such.
“Now, don’t even get me started on the Deliveroo riders.”
Round our way, they don’t seem to be as bad as they used to be. Most of them are going around on electric rickshaw style things now which look like they couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding and don’t seem to have any suspension, so you can hear them rattling down the street a mile off.
Here they are using mostly Honda PCXs. They ride like nutters on a suicide mission. We get them turn up for CBT. It’s rare for one to get through. Yet someone, somewhere is signing the buggers off to go out and get themselves killed.
Sounds like a problem that will sort itself out…
There used to be a plague of them around here, but they seem to have mainly disappeared. When they were prevalent they were always on the pavements. I’m not adverse to riding on the pavement on my bicycle at times(to avoid the maniacal car drivers around here) but never at more than walking pace. I found these scooter riders always rode flat out and because of the design they seem impossible to steer in anything but a straight line. Also you occasionally came across ones that had seating fixed to them or even more bizarrely one that had seating and fake mudguards and handlebar fairing that looked like a motorcycle. At least that was on the road though for how long before the cops pulled them over is anyones guess. I always thought they could be a good means of transport for those of restricted mobility as long as they were ridden sensibly. I’m ok cycling but walking is not so good. Going somewhere it would be good to have a scooter stored in the boot of the car. But unfortunately these morons seem determined to make this unachievable.
I take a robust attitude to cyclists and e scooters on my pavements and deal with them appropriately.
As with pushbikes, all that is needed is a sensible enforcement of existing laws to curb the irresponsible minority.
If this doesn’t occur (which, of course, it doesn’t) the irresponsible minority becomes a de facto majority. Maybe not an actual majority but in terms of trouble caused to others, they may as well be.
Rights without responsibilities is the very antithesis of libertarianism but it appears to be what passes for it in this infantilised clown world we find ourselves in.
These stupid toys have the added bonus, of course, of being about as stable as the “woke influencers” that seem to like them.
So the idiot crashed his own bike and now wants everyone else banned from using them? Typical. E-Bikes are probably a very useful technology if used correctly, so we shouldn’t be knee jerk banning them out of fear. There has to be better options, and probably ones that only require use of current regulation, rather than bringing in more
Yup.
I’ve just seen an electric vehicle that looked like a modern version of the Ariel 3. It was travelling on a public road but appeared to have no number plate. At present it seems that electric cycles and tricycles are legally equivalent to push bikes. While they were very low powered this made a certain amount of sense. As technology has advanced and these vehicles have become more powerful, it makes sense that they are re-classified as motor vehicles. Once that happens and they have to be taxed and insured just the same as a proper motorcycle the attraction for idiots to ride them will hopefully be greatly reduced.