London Is Heading For Public Transport Paralysis. Why Urgent Innovation Is Needed

Emergency planners believe London’s transport system may be unable to cope with a surge in demand when lockdown measures are lifted, according to reports by The BBC. Officials believe London Underground capacity may be reduced by as much as 85% due to coronavirus social distancing, affecting millions of passengers per day. With the capital’s public transport system headed for gridlock, TFL and the U.K. government need to innovate quickly to keep London moving.

In normal circumstances, 2 million people use London Underground each day. Up to 6 million passengers use London’s famous red buses. But out-of-date U.K. law has blocked technology innovators including Lyft and Uber from creating an alternative public transport network, through a shared scooter rental system. It is time for this to change.

While being legal across much of the EU and the U.S., e-scooter innovators have been effectively banned from the U.K. market, because out-of-date U.K. Road Traffic laws classify e-scooters as “motorized vehicles.” They are prohibited by The Road Traffic Act 1988, while pavement (sidewalk) use is against The Highway Act of 1835.

Frankfurt, 2019. “Tier Mobility” launches e-scooter rental with hundreds of e-scooters throughout … [+] the city.

Reports from Australia suggest bicycles are the new toilet paper, with some retailers reporting a 4x uplift in sales since lockdown. We can anticipate a boom in electric bicycles alongside this. A change here will be welcome news for London innovators like Brompton and startup A-bike who both produce popular e-bikes. While being similarly motorised, e-bikes are however, road legal. Why the double standard? London’s extraordinary new reality should now force government to classify e-scooters for lawful road use, alongside electric bicycles.

The Department for Transport (DfT) says it is an offence to use e-scooters on roads as they do not comply with motorised vehicle requirements such as insurance, tax and driver testing. “You need a driving test to ride a scooter?” That’s the official line.

As public transport is likely to be crippled by coronavirus, some 5-6 million Londoners will be forced to seek new ways to travel each day, one-way-or-another. Urgently.

Historic enforcement has not been consistent; infrequent enough for many individuals to ignore the law altogether. It’s harder to do this at scale. Up to 100 people per week were being stopped by London’s Metropolitan Police in 2019 for e-scooter use, only some receiving fines. Manufacturers and sellers typically bury these important facts in their small print, if disclosing at all. The rules are surprisingly restrictive.

As a class of vehicle, e-scooters are far closer to bicycles than they are to cars. Any sensible person can regognize this. A simple change in the law would allow e-scooters to become a safe and legitimate mode of transport and help with the dramatic problems TFL now faces. London’s rail and bus networks are evidently unfit for social distancing at scale. If this change still requires mandated insurance, so be it. If helmets must be worn, so be it. Specific breaking requirements, or speed restrictions could also be prescribed to make e-scooters a popular and safe option. All of this is possible. A reduction in tax should be considered too, as millions of people need to get to work. This is a green and scalable option. Bicycles are currently taxed at 20% VAT, despite government policy aiming to encourage much more cycling. Tax can be saved, however, if employers use the U.K.’s cycle-to-work scheme, introduced in 1999.

U.K. transport minister George Freeman was quoted in March of 2020 saying, “the Department for Transport is committed to encouraging innovation in transport as well as improving road safety.” A green future for London’s roads must include this new technology, alongside e-bikes and conventional bicycles.

Inertia in government has left e-scooter innovators and distributors hanging for years; while other countries like Germany have benefitted. This technology now has the potential to help millions of commuters to get to work safely, as a low-cost sharing economy solution, post-lockdown. It works in other countries. We need it now more than ever. With all governments now being forced to innovate at breakneck speed, in all kinds of dangerous ways, the risk of making this one important transport change, are very light by comparison. The impact could be significant.

E-scooters could permanently improve London’s transport system and reduce carbon emissions. Whatever problems may arise, they can be mitigated, and fixed in time. Fear of innovation is not an excuse to stall; doing nothing is simply not viable. The status quo will lead to a city-wide paralysis, and cause untold economic damage.

In 2019, the U.K. government spent $125 million advising citizens to “get ready for Brexit,” while Brexiteer Prime Minister Johnson promoted “independence” from EU rules as some kind of liberation from backwards foreign bureaucracy. How ironic. Now the U.K. government itself has an historic opportunity to innovate and correct its own backwards bureaucracy; to liberate and regularise a new mobility technology, of clear benefit to society. They should not be shy in taking it.