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Bikes scooters skateboards the electrification of personal transport in london is ubiquitous these vehicles are everywhere you look but not all of them are legal to ride on the road in the uk and after the country’s first fatal collision involving an electric scooter police have started to crack down on their use i’ve been commuting to the financial times by bus and
Train for about a decade now i want to find out more about these new greener ways to get about town i start with electric bikes this is the charger vario from recent mullet the first thing you notice is its size this thing weighs a hefty 26 kilos and took up about half my living room when i stored it overnight a bosch motor powers for electric pedal assist modes
This allows you to zip along with little effort even up steep hills i barely ridden a bike in london and i’m struck by how unbrushed the whole experience is there’s a lot of jostling for position and you can forget about queueing etiquette that made cruising past the pack of commuter cyclists with ease all the more satisfying in turbo assist mode i hardly have to
Turn the pedals and i’m like linford christie out of the blocks this bike will appeal to people who like the idea of cycling to work but don’t fancy wearing lycra or showering when they get to the office so here we are where i’m defty towers in about half an hour all told i say which is about 15 minutes less than my normal daily commute of bus and then train it’s
A glorious sunny day today here in london blue skies worry about 25 degrees but despite wearing this suit jacket they’re like i’ve barely broken a sweat fully charged and parsons says this is the rolls-royce of ebikes with a 4000 pound price tag i see what he means i wonder whether there’s much of a market for a bike like this when the likes of lyman uber offer
Electric bikes to hire for less than 10 pounds an hour we were all concerned in the cycling industry when the what the original barclays bikes came to market and we were concerned that that was going to kill people buying bicycles that wasn’t the case it introduced people to cycling in london we’re seeing people through the door who have had good experiences on the
Two bikes you know they’re quite big and clunky and heavy less enjoyable than a lot of our premium electric bikes next up the electric scooter this is the inner connect to electric scooters are everywhere in london right now and i’ve been itching to try one i feel like a kid earned the figure out it’s great from the moment i get on this thing i can’t stop smiling
That’s the firm of this the throttle control of and brakes are intuitive and it takes no time to get used to it if anything i become a little too confident i’m quickly cruising along with at 21 miles per hour top speed and have to hang on for dear life when i go over up north on the suspension doesn’t cope brilliant me with cobbled streets either my journey home
From work again takes just half an hour my commute the following morning is less successful after forgetting to charge it overnight i run out of battery after about five minutes so i fold it up and carry it on the train to work i feel like a child forced to give up his favorite toy when the time comes to return the light tea but at 1200 pounds it doesn’t come cheap
From electric scooters to electric skateboards this is the one i’m most nervous about i haven’t been near a skateboard since i was about 12 and i’m prone to breaking bones and yet after arriving a twix bars in hackney my eyes drawn immediately to the one-wheel xr apple ii named as it has just the one wheel okay to close after struggling to navigate a five minute
Test ride on the shop floor twice almost knocking over a display i opted for a less ambitious ride rick said selling over a hundred units a week and not just escape boarding enthusiasts and companies are struggling to manufacture and afford to meet their growing demands after my performance on the one wheel i’m surprised to learn we’re taking to the streets of
East london for the next test ride but i quickly see ye boards are so popular wireless handheld controls are intuitive and once you get used to standing on the board you simply transfer your weight to your toes that turn one way then rock back to your heels to turn the other of the three electric vehicles i test the skateboard is by far the most fun but i think i
Want to practice for a month or so on quiet roads before using it to commute to work alongside london buses i was surprised to learn that it’s illegal to ride electric scooters and skateboards on the road in the uk and safety concerns increased after british youtuber emily hartridge recently died in an accident while riding in a scooter the department for transport
Has launched a review into the future of urban transport and as sam irving discovered the police are no longer looking the other way he was pulled over while riding his east scooter to work warranty be fined three hundred pounds and given six points on his driving license if caught riding it again ridding it all around london never had a problem yesterday it felt
Like they were actually set up to to catch people like me the consequences to me sound pretty draconian pretty heavy-handed higher companies are lobbying for a change in the law the e-scooter sharing app bird operates in 15 countries but it’s restricted in the uk for the moment offering short rides around the olympic park which qualifies as private land it is a
Congested city i think the average speed of a car here is about 6 miles an hour just over the air quality it is pretty terrible eventually hopefully we will start seeing a shift in the law the rest of the world recognizes how important all this kind of thing is for sustainability and you know reducing congestion as a whole and like having something like uber or
Airbnb in any major city i think these are modern systems the people are familiar with now want and expect to see when they go to a big city like london or paris or new york the department of transport says people who use a scooters need to be aware it is currently illegal to ride them on the pavement and the road and companies must understand that reviewing laws
Does not necessarily mean laws will change when i tested the electric scooter i passed several police cars and officers on the streets and didn’t turn any heads but the metropolitan police have since warned that anyone who uses these scooters on public roads pavements or cycle lanes could face prosecution you do it at your own risk and you are breaking the law
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Scooters, skateboards and ebikes: greener ways to get to work By Financial Times