To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what criteria his Department will use to determine whether e-scooter rental trials are successful.
Answered on
21 September 2020
E-scooter trials are underway in Tees Valley, Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire, the West Midlands and Staffordshire. Trials have been approved in Norfolk, York, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Cambridge and Peterborough, Liverpool, Nottingham and Derby, Redditch, Kent and Slough and these will start soon. The Department is also assessing proposals for trials in some other local areas.
Data sharing agreements have been or will be put in place between the Department and the e-scooter operator(s) before a trial can commence. This will provide data on the number and types of journeys completed by e-scooters. The Department is in the process of setting up a large multi-disciplinary contract for the national evaluation of the trials. This will consist of data analysis as well as qualitative and quantitative primary research.
The evaluation will assess some key issues:?the safety risks presented by e-scooters; the mode shift?to e-scooters from other forms of transport;?public perceptions around their use; and other identified impacts from their use. These will inform a decision on whether e-scooters should be legalised and what a suitable form of regulation for e-scooters would be.