One of Labour’s new influx of London MPs has asked the government to give local authorities “new powers” to regulate the antisocial misuse of rented e-bikes and e-scooters, in ways appropriate for their areas.
In a letter to local Simon Lightwood, parliamentary under-secretary of state for transport, Rachel Blake, who gained the Cities of London & Westminster seat from the Conservatives in July, underlines the “extensive and well-known” problems with the hire vehicles, describing these as “frequently parked irresponsibly, blocking pavements and roads, which is hazardous for pedestrians and particularly for those with mobility challenges”.
Blake emphasises that such issues are “particularly acute” in busy areas like central London. She adds: “I believe that Local Authorities should have the powers to fine riders who park in a hazardous way and to fine the companies who fail to remove hazards.”
Although noting that the renting of e-scooters is undergoing a Transport for London trial period in more than half of London’s boroughs as part of a nationwide scheme, Blake points out that this is not expected to end until 2026. “Local authorities need powers to enforce in areas where there are problems now,” Blake writes. “We can’t wait.” The use of private e-scooters on public streets, though commonly seen in London, is illegal.
Highlighting her letter on X/Twitter, Blake says she is pleased to be working on addressing the problems with, among others, senior Westminster councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, who has been at the forefront of the Labour-run council’s attempts to get to grips with it in his capacity as cabinet member for city management and air quality.
Westminster announced in May 2023, one year after Labour won control of the prestigious local authority for the first time in its history, that it would be looking to instal parking bays where e-bike hirers could leave their bikes which, unlike TfL’s Santander-sponsored cycle hire scheme, do not have to be returned to a dock. It had previously instructed council officers to seize e-bikes left blocking pavements.
Over 300 parking bays have now been designated by council, which has said its voluntary agreement with e-bike suppliers Lime, Tier and Forest to encourage customers to use them is working well, but it said in January, when the Conservatives were still in national government, that new legislation was the “missing link” that needed to be supplied if e-bike use was to be properly controlled.
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Good, and probably very important in central London. Where I live, in Hounslow, the attempt to control Lime bikes (which we work with – not rental scooters which we don’t) using specific bays has failed in my opinion. We had Lime bikes for several years before the bays and as a ward councillor I had had only one complaint. Since the bays went in I had dozens, though to be fair that died off fairly soon. Lime claim that 95% of bikes are parked in bays. I think that is poppycock. Looking at my Lime app at present there are 25% in bays and 75% not. But actually, as before, they rarely cause any problem but it has had a very negative effect on their usefulness: I am a very rare user but there was usually before one or two parked close to my door – now it is 200M in any direction to get to a bay. Mitigated by the fact that most of them are not in bays anyway!
To me the more urgent issue is e-bikes – always illegal – regularly adapted to make them evn more problematic, mainly by going very fast. Also, food deliverers on electric bikes or motorbikes are almost always not competent drivers as they have passed no test. WHy is this allowed, and why do delivery companies allow it (because it is cheap labour, of course)? Local authorities have no ability to control this and cannot enforce speed limits. Where I live there is a camera in a wide, busy main street where there is little danger. There is no enforcement in residential streets, some of which are popular rat runs and quite a lot of accidents
please do something with these bikes. i live in Vauxhall. bikes are left on crossings, parking spaces and mostly in the middle of the pavements. every time i see someone happily dump their bikes i ask them to park next to a wall. all i get is rude replies. im an elderly lady who finds it a scary time to just walk along the pavement now. even worse i shout at riders who ride at speed along the pavement. i get abuse and told to drop dead. one man said he is allowed to ride on the pavement!!!
I have one of these Westminster provided parking bays outside my house in NW8. (There are others in NW8, mostly some distance from the high street, the bay outside my house is the closest to the high street)
It has been very impactful–in the wrong place and too small for the demand, and has wound up blocking a EV charge point in a shared parking bay, a single yellow line loading bay, and also overspilling onto the pavement from entitled ebike/escooter users who do not recognise the bay as full or park anywhere even if there is space in the bay.
No regular enforcement action is happening.
The e-bike/scooter maintenance teams come in the middle of the night making noise and disturbing my sleep, and sometimes one brand or another “stuffs” the bay with excess vehicles to try and crowd out their competition
I have complained to the council and suggested a better location nearby, and some of my neighbours have also complained.
Yes, I think we need Local Authority powers. At present no authority can stop rental bikes. No powers are available. There is virtually zero effort to control illegal scooters (on sale everywhere from Halfords to Tesco) and once bought there is no enforcement.
LAs have no powers and police have no time/ priority. I think the ‘bays’ now likely to be enforced across London by the GLA/TfL are a mistake. Unbranded bikes cause little trouble (except illegal ones).
To be fair, I don’t think Santander bikes do either but most outer London councils can’t afford them and I suspect they will get less viable in central London too. Allow bikes (including rental ones) but let’s have some regulations enforceable by LAs