Legislation Updates
Not yet sold on the benefits of e-scooters? That’s fine! Let us explain why we think that they’re the mobility revolution that we all need in today’s world.
We believe that e-scooters have a vital role to play in the way we travel as we look to create a cleaner, healthier future – reducing our reliance on congested roads, cramped and crowded public transport and enabling more people to be outside in the fresh air, more often.
Public transport hygiene:
- ‘There is a demonstrable link between public transport use and infectious diseases transmission’.1
- Close contact and the touching of shared surfaces is virtually unavoidable at peak times on public transport, heightening exposure to infection.
- Public transport therefore increases mass risk of virus contraction and spread.
UK environmental health issues:
- Children in every school in London and 234 schools in Birmingham are exposed to toxic pollution over the health limits of the World Health Organisation.2
- Air pollution impacts neurodevelopment and cognitive ability, can trigger asthma and childhood cancer, and is strongly associated with cardiovascular issues.3
- Diesel cars are the single biggest contributor to nitrogen oxides (NOx) levels in the UK, responsible for 41% of all NOx emissions from road transport.4
- People in the UK are 64 times as likely to die as a result of air pollution as those in Sweden and twice as likely as those in the US.4
A summary of why electric scooters should be legal as soon as possible:
- Electric scooters produce a fraction of the pollution cars do
- The more people that scoot, the less people are likely to drive 5
- Less cars on the road means less pollution and less congestion
- E-scooters can provide greater freedom to travel
- There’s no close contact or shared surfaces
- Over time, e-scooters are cheaper than public transport
- They’re just as safe as bikes 5
Sources
1 BMC Environmental Health article: Analysing the link between public transport use and airborne transmission: mobility and contagion in the London underground
2 The Times, 2019.
3 World Health Organisation, 2018.
4 Greener Journeys Report, Tackling Pollution & Congestion, 2017.
5 Matthew Leash, Safe To Scoot – How Legalising E-scooter Will Save Lives, Bust Congestion and Help the Environment (2020).
