They're legal only on roads and cycle tracks/lanes. Since there are almost know cycle tracks/lanes in Southampton, that leaves you with roads. That's already terrifying on a bicycle; I can't imagine how it would be on a scooter. It's not a bike-friendly town at all, even worse than most American cities. A bit of a shock coming from Scandinavia, where I was based last 5 years..
Don't know to be honest. Ridden with care they're a great idea. Often sadly the rider seem bent on destruction, of self or others...
When we went to Rekjavik there were rental e-scooters, really easy and convenient. You just install an app on your phone, it tells you where they are nearby and how much battery they have, when you get one the app unlocks it and you start paying until you park it up again. If the battery runs low it tells you, then you just stop somewhere and grab another one (no additional unlocking charge in that case), so you can travel as far as you like. Funnily enough, mostly they ride on the pavements and generally people seemed pretty sensible with that, they weren't causing a nuisance when I was a pedestrian. Anyway they had a GPS based speed limiter so when you came to the busy/pedestrianised area in the centre it wouldn't go fast anyway. A truck came round at night and picked up all the scooters with low batteries for charging. The most negative thing is there did seem to be a problem with people dumping them around the place , I suspect that if the battery gets too low the scooter's GPS/data connection doesn't work any more then the truck doesn't come and pick them up.
I think the usage is the same, the UK just has more moany Karens spoiling things for everyone. There have been very very few real incidents in the UK involving electric scooters, people just don't like seeing others use them so they complain, but actual incidents are extremely rare and those that exist are often cars at fault, just like with bikes. If safety was a true concern we could fix it in a heartbeat by making space and having some rules. After all, thousands are killed or injured by cars every year and we just accept that. I find it baffling that we talk about net zero constantly and when a mode of transport comes along that could genuinely achieve that we reject it immediately instead of embracing it.
There have been a lot of uncomfortably close near misses between pedestrians walking on the pavement and electric scooter riders nipping through the crowds. Pick a town.
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There are MILLIONS of near misses with cars every day. A near miss is not an incident. As I said, rules would solve it instantly. Right now some of the scooters are extremely fast because they're unregulated (unlike e-bikes, which seem to work just fine). Regulation would limit them to 13kph or so, which is perfectly safe. Right now they're illegal everywhere so people ride them everywhere, make some rules and suddenly people can ride them in bike lanes and on roads and the pavements are no longer at risk.
The Dutch just understand there's a hierarchy, and cars are at the bottom of that hierarchy. They keep others safe and actually punish people for causing harm. In the UK our default position is that cars are not at fault regardless, and everyone else has to fend for themselves.
We are unsure yet. I hate to say it but we're essentially just bumming about at the moment and going where the wind blows us. Right now we're completing the house sale but then we'll be free and finally unencumbered with expenditure dropping by £2k/month. Immediate plan is inner Hebrides but after that it's either Norway, more Scotland, or dart for the Med to warm up a bit. Ireland was a frustrating place to cruise for many reasons (bins and gas being two big ones, especially bins!) so although it's a nice place we're unlikely to do a lot more of it, although we might spend a week in the Mourne Mountains wandering the peaks.Btw ( massive thread drift ) Are you heading round Britain down to Holland and or the canals to further adventures south , or turning left and heading down the west Irish coast ? ( nice choices to have
This is true not just in Iceland but pretty much all over the world, all over Europe, SE Asia, the States, even Central Asia. They are particularly useful in the Nordic countries where there a dense networks of bike (and scooter) lanes, paths and even intercity bike highways.
