E-scooters are set to be banned from a county where they were being trialled.
The rental scheme was launched in Canterbury, Kent, in November 2020 and was due to last until 2024.
However, the scheme is being wound down within the next couple of months over safety concerns.
Councillor David Brazier said: ‘As we were nearing the end of the trial, I decided to truncate it before someone was seriously hurt.’
Sarah Carter, 80, was ‘seriously injured’ after an e-scooter collided with her on a pavement in Station Road West.
The retired university librarian suffered a broken wrist, cracked jaw and cheekbones after the suspected hit-and-run crash.
She said: ‘Another elderly person could have quite easily been even more seriously injured or even killed.’
Mr Brazier told councillors at a cross-party committee e-scooter riders have been barrelling down roads not given the green light by the council.
‘I tended to favour the trial going on, but it was quite obvious now accidents could have been worse than they were,’ he added.
In Canterbury, e-scooters can only be used in a select patch of the city that includes the city centre, the University of Kent and local hospitals.
But Mr Brazier said the area will be shrunk down to just a single approved route by November.
He said: ‘The agreement reached by officers was the area of operation should immediately be limited to the corridor between the university and the city centre.’
Canterbury’s pilot scheme was one of 30 trials across the UK by the Department of Transport to get people out of cars and make travel greener.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, transport officials twice extended the trial with local authorities being able to stretch it once more in November 2022.
All pilots will come to an end in May 2024 and the government will decide whether or not to approve e-scooters for use on public highways.
In 2021 there were 1,359 casualties in collisions involving e-scooters, compared to 484 in 2020, according to the Department of Transport.
Source: Metro.co.uk
𝐓𝐀𝐗𝐈 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐓:
Why is it that the commissioner and directors of TfL along with the Mayors transport team, are actively involved in putting the public at risk by allowing this dangerous form of rental transport?
The use of e-scooters have actively been promoted by deputy Mayor for transport along with dock-less cycles which also have been accused of presenting problems to disabled people when left dangerously scattered around on pavements.
Private use of e-scooters on roads, pavements and parkland has been banned, but most of the time police turn a blind eye to the problem!
Westminster council have been actively removing these dock-less cycles and scooters (where they present a problem). They say the vehicles will be crushed if companies owning them refuse to pay the removal fee and pick up.
𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐟𝐋 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐲’𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲.
No comments:
Post a Comment