fixed-penalty notice and six points on their driving licence if caught.
Campaigners said the Road Traffic Act needed updating, and that e-scooters were an environmentally
friendly alternative to cars. But they have prompted safety concerns, which were heightened last month
when Emily Hartridge, a television presenter and YouTuber, became the first person in the UK to be killed
while riding an e-scooter.
Some UK commenters say e-scooters should have number plates, and that riders should be required to wear
helmets, follow all traffic laws and be forced to pay insurance and road tax.
Peter Williams, 22, who organised the protest, said authorities had clamped down on the use of e-scooters.
“We want there to be legislation around this that will make it safer for people and we basically want people
to have the option of choosing a green mode of transport rather than using, for example, diesel buses or
cars,” he said. “How is it right to prosecute those who are making a change in our city to reduce congestion,
pollution and the risk of death in automotive collisions?”
However, a new American study found e-scooter sharing schemes were not as eco-friendly as they seem.
Researchers at North Carolina State University found that the materials it took to manufacture the frame,
wheels and battery, as well as rounding up the scooters, charging them and returning them to the streets at
the end of each day created more greenhouse gas emissions than other forms of transport.
At the same time as the Downing Street protest, Oxfordshire police issued the identity of an electric
skateboard rider who died after an accident. Bradley Visser, 38, died 10 days later. A trial of e-scooters in
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London has been extended, despite their wider roll-out being illegal.
The Department for Transport said the government was examining how e-scooters could be regulated for
safe use on the road, while still encouraging innovative new forms of transport. Transport for London said
that if the ban on the vehicles ends, maximum speeds and restrictions on where they can be ridden must be
among new safeguards.