London e-scooter trial exceeds half a million trips milestone

The London e-scooter trials have reached over 500,000 trips and nearly one million miles since launch in June 2021.

Transport for London (TfL) and e-scooter operators Dott, Lime and Tier have released new data that shows around 180,000 people have used the scheme to date and the most rides by a single user was more than 300 trips.

The busiest month for the trial was October, as people returned to offices and the London Borough of Camden joined the scheme, and the most popular hour to ride an e-scooter is between 6 and 7pm.

The London trial has expanded significantly over the first eight months since it launched.

The number of vehicles available to hire has increased sixfold to 3,585 vehicles and the number of boroughs participating in the trial has doubled.

There are now more than 420 designated parking locations across the trial area, with plans to expand this number over the coming year to further increase parking density.

London's trial is one of 32 authorised by the Department for Transport (DfT) around the UK. 

The trials are gathering data that will be used to inform any changes to the legal status of e-scooters that the Government may choose to introduce in the coming years.

The trial is highlighting the disconnect between the safety standards and vehicle specifications of trial e-scooters and private e-scooters that are currently completely unregulated and therefore not built to any minimum safety standards. Private e-scooters remain illegal for use on roads and cycle lanes.

Will Norman, London’s walking & cycling commissioner, said: “As we continue to recover from the pandemic, e-scooters can play a role in urban transport systems offering greener and more sustainable alternatives to the car.

“However, there is currently a woeful lack of regulation around private e-scooters. The London trial has safety at its heart and we continue to gather evidence about how e-scooters can be made safer for riders and all other road users.”

Helen Sharp, TfL’s e-scooter trial lead, said the transport body is working closely with operators, councils and people across London to build on the success of the trial so far.

She said: “The anonymised data we gather is crucial and we’ll be analysing this closely so that we can learn more about the role e-scooters could play in helping people move around London sustainably.”