London’s rental e-scooter trial expanded on Monday as a new borough joined the scheme.
Wandsworth had been seen by the scooters’ riders as a ‘missing piece’ in the capital’s ‘jigsaw’ of areas which allow the vehicles, as it cut off several participating boroughs on its borders.
But on Monday, it was confirmed that the Labour-run council has become London’s 11th local authority to permit the e-scooters, meaning that the trial now covers a third of the city’s boroughs.
It comes as data from Transport for London (TfL) reveals that five million journeys have been made on the scooters since the scheme first launched in the capital in June 2021, clocking up enough mileage to travel around the world 250 times.
The addition of Wandsworth to the scheme means that an extra 35 km² and 170 parking bays have been added to the trial area, increasing it to 300 km² and 1,300 bays in total.
Jenny Yates, the council’s cabinet member for transport said: “We want to support people in Wandsworth to make more sustainable travel choices if they can, and this e-scooter trial will allow us to see if rental e-scooters can offer a safe and convenient alternative to car journeys.
“We’ll be monitoring the trial closely and listening to residents’ feedback to make sure it works for everyone in the borough.”
According to the scheme’s latest available data, around 140,000 trips were made using the scooters in the four weeks between March 10 and April 6 of this year. Only one of those journeys is reported by the scooters’ operators - Lime and Voi - to have resulted in a “serious” injury.
The average distance of journeys in that period was only 1.9km and trips averaged at around 11 minutes - suggesting that the scooters continue to be popular for relatively short hops across neighbourhoods, rather than for cross-London travel.
Renting an e-scooter continues to be the only legal way to use one on roads or public land in England, as privately-owned e-scooters can only be used on private property.
TfL’s data shows that since September 2023, only 11 serious injuries have been reported on the rental e-scooters in total.
Will Norman, Sir Sadiq Khan’s walking and cycling commissioner, said: “The data clearly shows that the rental e-scooter trial has helped to boost sustainable and active travel in our city, with over five million journeys made since it launched, and it has also laid bare the significant difference in safety between private and rental scooters.
“It's really pleasing Wandsworth Council have become the latest borough to join the trial as we continue to build a greener, safer and more accessible city for everyone.”
According to TfL, of the more than five million journeys made on the scooters, around seven per cent replaced trips which would otherwise have been made by car.
“We continue to put safety at the heart of the trial and regularly review trial performance to ensure that the scheme works for both users and non-users of the service,” said TfL’s e-scooter trial lead, Helen Sharp.
“Working closely with operators and people across London, we will continue to build on what we’ve learnt to date, to ensure that everyone benefits from using rental e-scooters.”
The London boroughs now participating in the e-scooter trial are:
- Camden
- City of London
- Ealing (east of the borough only)
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Lambeth
- Richmond upon Thames
- Southwark
- Tower Hamlets
- Wandsworth
- Westminster
