City transport regulators said Tuesday that a handful of e-scooter rental firms had been selected to run trials in the U.K. capital next month.
The operators include U.S. start-up Lime, German firm Tier and Dutch rival Dott, Transport for London (TfL) said. The pilot will last for 12 months.
Areas covered by the trials include Ealing, Canary Wharf, the City of London, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Richmond upon Thames.
Riders will be able to travel through but not start or end trips in Tower Hamlets. The London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark are also looking to participate in the trials.
THE owner of an Oxford business is offering a £1,000 reward for an electric scooter which could become the ‘first legal’ one in the UK. The one-off prototype has been in development for the last two years, but was stolen on Sunday night. The business owner, who did not wish to be named, said: “It’s a very novel product that we wanted to develop. “We know the electric scooter will come at some point in the future. The stolen electric scooter “These scooters are not legal in the UK at the moment, but this scooter would be the first in the world where you pedal.
The Facebook post attracted hundreds of comments and shares. In response to residents’ concerns, a spokesperson from the force said: “Prior to this seizure taking place, members of this male’s family, including his mother, were spoken with by the police on several occasions and advised about how to use this e-scooter in a “safe” and legal manner. As it was clear that this advice was being ignored, the officers involved in this seizure felt that that they had already exhausted the ‘common sense approach’ and discretion avenues and decided that it would be more appropriate to seize the vehicle, in order to prevent harm coming to anyone, including the young male riding it.”