Minutes:
Iain Turner, Transport Planner, Nottingham City Council updated the Forum and gave a presentation. The following information was highlighted:
a) The e -scooter trial had been launched in October 2020 and was a Department for Transport DfT response to Covid which seen as opportunity to launch this and seeing how mode of transport would work.
b) There are 40 local areas trailing the scooters and over the past 11 months they have proved to be very popular. Originally the pilot scheme started with 50 scooters which has now increased to 750. The current usage was approximately 5000 per day.
c) Approximately 35,000 members have signed up to the app, with regular use of scooter equating to 3,500 every day. Fuel crisis saw leap in use and the rides per day reached 1600 people signed up in 3 days and rides per day reached over 6000.
d) There have been a number of issues associated with e-scooters as follows:
E scooter parking has been an issue (with scooters being left incorrectly and parking radii being too wide) Marked parking bays were reverted to and parking radii were shrunk. Still a work in progress and reviews are underway as scooters are being parked in the vicinity of parking spot but not in proper bay.
Pavement Riding has been problematic and fundamentally mean e-scooters are not being ridden correctly. Partly due to the increase in usage and there have been concerns for the safety of pavement users.
Private e-scooter usage currently working with Police and Trading Standards so that those purchasing private e-scooters are informed that they can only legally use their scooters on private land.
Maintenance of e-scooters and maintenance checks have increased. Also a lot of scooters undergo checks by e-scooter patrollers and these were showing as not active as they were waiting to be picked up and looked at.
Rider Conduct
Enforcement – stricter measures for rider conduct. 3 strike disciplinary process in place whereby any incorrect conduct would see an initial warning, followed by a 1 week ban and then the 3rd strike would be a permanent ban from the scheme.
e) A £7.50 flat fee was introduced for any scooters found abandoned outside of a parking spot and there had been an increase in communications within the app giving topical warnings and messages with regards to safety. E-scooter patrols launched in March 2021– to target hotspots and routes of high usage of scooters on pavement. There had also been an expansion of areas of Geo-fence – e.g the canal, the area around Nottingham College and the parks and city centre are slow-go (limited to 8 kph) or no go zones
Next steps:
f) The Council needs to imminently decide if extension to scheme it required. DfT would be exploring the legalisation process around October 2022 at the earliest. However, this could potentially would create a legal black hole for the Council.
g) Other improvements to the scheme had been considered and they included mandatory training and conduct for users, stricter KPI’s for maintenance, issuing of number plates, increased numbers of patrollers and in-person training events. Different docking methods were also being considered and work continued with disability groups on the development of an app to give warning people if e scooter are in close proximity.
In response to questions asked by Forum members, the following points were made and information given:
h) Consideration could be given to offering offenders mandatory training at their expense prior to them being banned. It was suggested that to tackle some of the issue with illegal e-scooters being used was that some active enforcement be taken to resolve this and improved cycling routes around city would make it safer for pedestrian and scooter rides and separate them from the public.
i) Some people haven’t used the roads and we are trying to look at online training and quizzes (like cycling proficiency) for those with little road experience and improvements to on-ground markings and maintenance of this.
j) In order to use the e-scooters, individuals had to be 16 years old and above and hold a provisional license. When you sign up, you have to have perform a duel authentication and you can only have that on one devices. There was some suspicion that some people were unlocking the scooters for someone else to use
k) Trial of different methods for parking to be undertaken. Few different methods being considered – bus stops are very difficult sights as want to run parking alongside existing street furniture but these often have limited space for docking and created obstacles for pedestrians.
l) NCC submit a monthly report to DfT which monitors the accidents/incidents involving e-scooters, the majority of which are minor accident. A number of incidents reported are with cars and they are reported for insurance purposes. Typically there would be 6 or 7 incidents a month and in other authorities figures have been obtained from A and E departments re e-scooter injuries to monitor any disparities, which NCC wished to move towards.
m) NCC continued to work with Police and one of the main areas of concerns was the conduct of users on private e scooters. The Police had been waiting for a national directive and there has been some cease and destroy, but there may have been instances where lack of resources or other priority Police work has taken precedence.
The forum thanked the officer for his presentation and for his ongoing work.