I was happy to try and raise the awareness of the danger that unsafe e-scooter use poses for people with sight loss when I met the charity Guide Dogs at the Conservative party conference.
There are limited trials of rental e-scooters taking place in parts of the country to help the government decide whether they can be used legally more widely on our streets. However, there has been a boom in sales of privately-owned e-scooters which are not legal to use on public roads – yet their use is widespread.
YouGov polling produced for the charity Guide Dogs showed that 92% of people who had seen an e-scooter in the past 6 months, had seen one driven on the pavement. E-scooters driven unsafely on the pavement cause problems for many pedestrians, but people with sight loss who cannot see an e-scooter approach are particularly at risk.
Guide Dogs staff were attending the party conference to shed more light on the potentially dangerous use of e-scooters using their ‘beat the wheel’ quiz.
I am supporting Guide Dogs’ call for a public information campaign to stop the illegal use of e-scooters.
There’s also widespread support for Guide Dogs’ call to require e-scooters to make a continuous noise so that people with sight loss know they are coming, as well as applying limits on their weight and speed.
