London, England launched an e scooter trial involving three operators – Dott, Lime and TIER – in June 2021, and Transport for London (TfL) has recently released new data regarding the project:
- out of 2.5 million trips taken by rental e-scooter between June 2021 and November 2022, 93.5% would have otherwise been taken by walking, cycling or public transport;
- while only 6.5% of the e-scooter trips would have been made by car or taxi/private hire vehicles, 32% of users combined their e-scooter journeys with public transport and over 249 tonnes of CO2 emissions was saved;
- the average e-scooter journey time was 17 minutes, and the average distance traveled was 2.5 kilometers;
- fewer than 0.01% of trips resulted in serious injury. There have been no fatalities and 22 serious injuries reported by the three operators; and
- the operators reported that more than 95% of trips complied with parking rules.
Since launching, the services have expanded to include ten boroughs and over 5,000 e-scooters are now available for rent. Rental e-scooters are the only way to legally ride an e-scooter on public roads or in other public places in the UK.
TfL is currently working with the operators, councils, and residents across London to build on plans for the next phase of the trial. Lime, Dott, and Voi were recently awarded contracts to run the next phase of the city’s e-scooter trial, following a competitive open procurement process.
“We hope Londoners and visitors can continue to benefit from the trial and we will continue to use its data to learn more about the role e-scooters could play in helping people move around London sustainably,” Helen Sharp, TfL’s e-scooter trial lead, said.