Half of South Bristol has been ‘cut off’ and ‘left as an afterthought’, a local councillor has said, after the e-scooter company Voi failed to expand the scooter hire trial into communities on the southern edge of the city.
Mystery surrounds exactly why Swedish firm Voi has not yet expanded its scooter trial area into communities in South Bristol, but this expansion was announced in March and was supposed to have happened in June and July.
The expansion of the scheme into the rest of north west Bristol, from Southmead to Avonmouth, happened as planned back in early June, but everywhere south of the A4174 ring road, which separates areas like Knowle and Bishopsworth from parts of the city further south like Withywood, Hartcliffe, Hengrove, Whitchurch and Stockwood, is still a ‘no-go area’ for the e-scooters.
From March 2022: E-scooter trial to be expanded to the rest of Bristol
Bristol Live has asked why the expansion has not happened, and Voi has not provided a clear explanation. A company spokesperson said: “We are keen to expand to these areas and offer more people the opportunity to hop on and adopt our green mode of transport. We are currently working through the final details of the expansion, in liaison with the West of England Combined Authority and Bristol City Council.”
Back in March this year, Bristol Live broke the news that the areas of the city that had not been part of the Voi e-scooter trial, which launched two years ago in most of the city, would be expanded.
Back then, seven months ago, Bristol City Council, the West of England Combined Authority and Voi heralded the announcement as a big step forward for the scheme, in a report to councillors to get the council’s backing. Voi has said that Bristol is the city where the e-scooters are most used, with the highest number of users, rides and mileage, and the city was the first to get the new V5 model of Voi e-scooter earlier this year.
But tens of thousands of people from Withywood to Stockwood had been excluded from the trial from the start - they have to cross over the A4174 Airport Road into Bishopsworth, Knowle West, Knowle or Brislington to find the e-scooters parked up legally. A Bristol Live Facebook Live broadcast on March 31 this year showed in real-time how the ban on e-scooters riding into South Bristol works - the scooter stopped working as soon as it got to the A4174 Airport Road at Filwood Green, making it impossible to ride beyond into Hengrove.
When the expansion was revealed in March, Bristol City Council said it would allocate an extra £15,000 to assist the running of the scheme, mainly officer time to work with Voi to check the locations of a planned extra 600 parking hubs and between 500 and 900 new e-scooters on the streets of the city to expand the scheme for the new geographical areas.
On June 7, Bristol City Council and Voi trumpeted the expansion into both ends of the city as providing ‘more sustainable travel choices’. That day in a press release issued by the city council, the cabinet member for transport, Cllr Don Alexander (Labour, Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston) said: “Opening up e-scooters to the whole of Bristol will increase the range of transport options to all of our residents, providing more sustainable travel choices and helping us work towards cleaner air, and less congestion and pollution while unlocking barriers to inclusive economic growth.
“There are some elements of the trial that could be improved, and the recent extension of the trial to November and this geographical expansion to the entire city will give the opportunity to get more data and test possible solutions,” he added.
On that day in June, the work had been completed in places like Avonmouth, Shirehampton, Lawrence Weston and Sea Mills, and people immediately began using the scooters there to get around. But in South Bristol, the no-go area remained and the scooters are still banned today.
Hartcliffe city councillor Kerry Bailes said the e-scooters would be a massive boost for the people in her area, because bus services are so poor. “I work in central Bristol and see people using them to get to work,” she said. “They are quicker than a taxi or bus. Forty per cent of people here in Hartcliffe do not have access to a car. With the cost of driving lessons out of reach for most here, the incentive to learn to drive isn’t there, so our travel options are limited to buses and taxis.
“If residents felt safer and had the cycling infrastructure, cycling would be another option. I see these scooters lined up by Campus Pool, so you can hire them if you live in Bedminster Down or parts of Bishopsworth, where houses are worth more and people generally earn more money, but the scheme cuts off working-class areas like Hartcliffe. That’s not an accidental postcode lottery is it? It’s an assumption that we are less deserving and always an afterthought for these initiatives.
“This is one of those situations where it feels like we have to prove our worthiness! We have poor bus services, and for many, these scooters would help them get about as they do in other areas of Bristol,” she added.
West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris said he would be asking Voi what was going on with the expansion plans. He said he welcomed the move into both north west Bristol and the estates of South Bristol because the scheme would be expanding into areas that are traditionally working-class, where the scooters could be a real benefit.
He said: “In Bristol, it is people in the city centre who have benefited most from e-scooters which is why I welcomed the plan to extend the scheme to all parts of the city.
“I understand the expansion was put on hold by Voi as they ran into difficulties trying to find parking spots for the e-scooters in areas including Hengrove and Stockwood. I remain hopeful the operator will provide a firm launch date soon,” he added.
Bristol City Council, which had allocated thousands of pounds to facilitate the expansion and was the authority that formally announced the expansion on June 7, directed inquiries to Voi and WECA. A spokesperson said: “We took a Cabinet decision in April to approve the expansion and give WECA and Voi the green light to introduce the new infrastructure needed.”
Read next:
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'Next generation' model of Voi e-scooters rolled out in Bristol today
E-scooters 'are five times safer than bikes' major new study has shown
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