Beryl has welcomed the latest announcement from the Government on the future of e-scooter legislation – which could see e-scooters become legal on the UK’s roads.
The Government said that the Transport Bill, which was announced during Tuesday’s Queen’s Speech, will help them take the steps they need to make e-scooters safer and they will now consider how best to design future regulations.
While riding a privately owned e-scooter on public land is currently illegal, there are a number of Department for Transport-sponsored trials including the Beryl trial here on the Isle of Wight. These were sanctioned to help the DfT to better understand the benefits of properly regulated, safety-tested e-scooters and their impact on public space.
Currently, e-scooters sold for private use are unregulated and can only be used legally on private land with the landowner’s permission. But many of the 1million+ private e-scooters sold to date in the UK are being used illegally on the public highway.
Beryl CEO and Co-Founder, Phil Ellis, says:
“We welcome any legislation that seeks to remove barriers to sustainable transport and encourage the take up of greener transport transport options, reducing road congestion while improving air quality and public health.
“The success of our schemes has shown that, by instilling high standards of safety and operational control, you can introduce safe and sustainable schemes that can form an essential part of an integrated multimodal urban transport network.
“The key is to ensure delivery in partnership with authorities and in consultation with communities and key stakeholders and we have a proven track record of doing this successfully.”
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During the trials, e-scooter riders are required to provide a valid UK Driving Licence to participate. They are also asked to provide feedback on their experiences using the vehicles to support data learnings on operating the service.
Beryl e-scooters can be used on roads, cycle lanes, carriageways and other areas where cycling is permitted but not on pavements.
If you need to provide a valid driving licence how come there are so many kids riding them. More accidents waiting to happen on the island roads as drivers loose patience trying to get pass them
So true, how come rented scooter can be ridden by such young people? I used one recently, nice, but was asked to leave it in parking zone. It was inconvenient because needed to go away from planned destination.
Make e scooters safer?
Mandatory training, compliance to the highway code, helmets at all times, and insurance, and must hold driving licence.
Better still, crush them all into something worthwhile, like a sculpture for the proposed development at st Mary’s, Koan 2?
Come, y’all, bring on the hate, LOL.
Not on pavements ,,,, some should put a sign up and police should do their job as there are many riding e scooters on pavements
They are the cause of more pollution and frustration not less as cars queue up behind them and going the wrong way down cowes pedestrian presink, scrap them.
Seen police stop several on pavements.
Would you like to ride something like a e-scooteron the busy roads whereas e-bicycles are more or less to ride around freely,no license & yet they are more well built for road use rather then a e-scooter. You ride it sensible,wing-mirrors,helmets and a age limit of 17yr with taking pedestrians and the general public and traffic in mind should be more than sufficient for the rules of riding one.If you are fought breaking any of the above laws and regulations then your vehicle will be confiscated straight away without having the opportunity to get it back so if you end up purchasing a 2nd one then I’ll guarantee you they will be thinking twice
They are basically bikes and should be regulated as such
What regulations are there for bikes, they’re not even required to have a bell!
you will now be allowed to use them in care homes, hospitals and going up escalators.
Awesome news, bring it on. Scooters everywhere, for everyone. !
Usual Islander NIMBY/ban anything electric/burn it with fire/Pitchforker downvotes below please, thank you.
All obeying laws welcome.
what a pile of drivel from their ceo, in our area the majority of scooter riders using beryl scooters routinely break the law by riding on pavements, riding two up, underage riders yet despite complaints beryl do nothing and the police do nothing to stop the illegal users who blatantly ride around the area, they also ignore cyclists on the pavements as well.
What happened to democracy, no one likes them so the government ok’s them.
you’re supposed to represent tne people you serve Bojo!
Naturally Beryl ant to stop private e-scooters so those people will use beryl’s.. But more regulations yes, but better still would be people that could regulate the use of the Beryl’s now. I see young teens, and younger, riding around on them sometimes two up. They do not have a licence and have no clue of the Highway Code.. I emailed beryl once about this, and they did nothing… and they never will do anything. They need to be looked into, Beryl that is .. They have no regulations as to whom hires them , or their age.. !
Beryl you are liars….. ‘During the trials, e-scooter riders are required to provide a valid UK Driving Licence to participate’ Not on the Isle of Wight they don’t…. unless kids under 16 can get a driving licence !! There and many children riding these around Ryde, nothing is done…
I have spoken to the company that supply the scooters,and they are more than aware of the underage user’s and one way they check the validity of the rider is to check the email that is submitted with the driver’s licence,and by doing so, they can see often that it is a teenager who is apparently called Lilian and is aged 64,at which point”I know for a fact!” That the company closes that account,so give it time,as I understand your concerns,as I have the same, which is why I contacted the scooter company, directly.
Sorry, I have watched teenager use JUST A DEBIT CARD and his mobile , and away he went on e-scooter.. NO DRIVERES LICENCE, he is only about 12 years old !!!
A debit card and therefore either a credit account or bank account at 12? Dont think so.
13 year olds can have a debit card please check before making silly comments
How come all this promotional stuff is so far removed from the experiences that we have all seen of these scooters?
I think they are a bloody menace!
I’m sure there are a few that are used responsively, but there’s many more that aren’t.
As for their their supposed ecological benefits – have the riders forgotten how to walk?
I hope St Mary’s has enough A&E beds to cope.
And how are they going to stop private scooters being used on the roads? The other day I was waiting at a red light at some temporary roadworks in Freshwater & just as the light went green & I began to pull away, a young child, probably about 12yrs old, pulled across the road, right infront of my car, he came out of nowhere. He looked amazed that I almost hit him?!!
Beryl has had over a 1000 complaints on the Island so how van they be so welcome.They don’t respond to them either so no one gets warned or banned
becuase they have given you moody old folk a channel to complain if we had one up for cycles it would get over 1000 complaints in the first day. use your head before you waffle.. melt.
I spoke with the company responsible for the scooters yesterday and I brought up the subject of underage riders, recklessly weaving in & out of pedestrians on the pavement’s,and they agreed it is a problem,but one of the ways they are trying to stop it is, checking the emails that are submitted with the driver’s licence,and by doing this they can see the alleged rider is actually a teenager who has a licence, stating that they are a 64 year old lady called Lillian,when according to their email address they are infact to young to possess a driving license,and so the company closes the account,so I believe it will in time,be vastly safer!
They are so in denial aren’t they? Useless. As if it doesn’t take two minutes to set up an email with the same name as the licence. Yours sincerely, Lillian
can’t they just open another account? probably easy as shelling peas
Total crap,if they were to name all those adults over 50yrs ,95% would be amazed, kid’s just take photos of others licence’s and then share and sell details to friends, alot of uses are drug running,less chance being stopped than a pedestrian. Wonder . It’s not greener as majority don’t actually drive a car, just less on buses. Council put taxi fares up to try and get more money out of Beryl.
They are being used as toys and for joy rides, which is not the original intention. Scrap the lot. I wonder if some executive at Beryl has made a donation to Tory party funds.
Your’e suspicions may well be spot-on, Paul. Neither Beryl nor the Government could give a toss how ilegally or dangerously their scooters are being used so long as the money rolls in. And it rolls in bigtime – their parent company, SMIDSY Limited, have an annual turnover of between £10,000,000 and £50,000,000 !
It would be nice to see beryl using inspectors out and about to check who is using and how they are using their scooters
Bring yourself into the 21st century. Why would they need Inspectors (lol) they are GPS tracked so they know where and how they are being used all off the time – and the vast majority of the time they are being used correctly.
I wonder how many times the e:scooters are actually used for going from A to B, rather than just being used to piss about on and generally cause a nuisance?
Beryl a farce of a company much like the Ferries, Greed and no caring about the people… trial… yeah right.. a farce to get money.. sod the people…
Judging by the many incidents already, with so few. Bozo the clown continues his eco bull.
Very often the Uk is raining. Wet tyres on icy or wet road is bad enough but with the electric wheel it can be easily to slip out.
Bikes are generally safer with an inherent height of person required.
It will take more deaths for them to be realised on how to make them safe.
I’d say adult electric bikes to hire would be better.
Scooters are better for cycle tracks only, not roads among cars.
This is what happens when you have a government that only governs for business. They pay someone a load of money to ask the PM for a rule for them so they can make loads of money. Just like they do in Russia.
Irony: complaining about scooters yet you took your driving test in 1984 meaning you have no clue of the highway code.
Moan moan moan
They are an absolute menace. The law is not being enforce. BAN THEM
Moan moan moan I bet your a barrel of laughs?
I dont know why some bright spark hasnt yet organised a mass theft of these things and thrown them in the medina river at high tide along with all the shopping trolleys.
These comments lol, all hating on the idea of e scooters but you people are happy with people on push bikes (bicycles) on the road and having to dodge them when over taking. People with push bikes don’t have insurance or require a driving license to be on the road. If that’s the case then people with push bikes should be required to have these things aswell. Stop being narrow minded, these scooters are going at 15.5mph while push bikes can do around the same or even more than that.
Actually the Beryl scooters are limited to 12.5mph, so most ebikes are actually faster and just as quiet. Yet nothing is said about them – and there are WAY more of them and WAY more ebicycle accidents. Spose it doesn’t fit the usual sour ban everything Island dullard narrative tho does it. No wonder this Island is a dead end with no hope.
Beryl should have to supply the insurance for the E scooter when hired,
Whatever rules or legislation there may by, there still will be riders totally taking the proverbial out of the rules and doing what they want.