E-Scooters and parks

[whole diary]

[grahame]

1. Only hired escooters with a driving license etc allowed to be used on public highways. I get it.

2. Any escooter may be used on private land provided the landlord allows it. I get it.

3. What about a public park which is not a part of the highway - for example one owned by my local Town Council? Is it up to the Town Council to decide and if there's nothing explicit in the bylaws how would it default?

[ChrisB]

A. How do they get it there? As long as it is carried somehow.

B. I think it is ‘private’ land - there is a landowner. So yes, I believe it is down to the landowner to consider insurance of the scooter owner. Suggest legal advice be taken

[rogerw]

Road traffic law applies not just to public highways but to public areas so that it would probably apply to parks. It certainly applies to supermarket/leisure centre car parks.

[Marlburian]

All academic, I fear. People won't bother to insure and there won't be any checks.

(BTW^▸ (by the way) Slough Borough Council has just extended its scheme: https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/slough-e-scooter-trial-set-24732376)

[grahame]

Further investigation suggests that powered electric vehicles that are not allowed on the road could be used in parks, etc, with the permission of the landlord and with conditions set by the landlord.  As an example, Wandsworth Council allow Segways to be operated by a company that takes groups around Battersea Park, all carefully insured and regulated to ensure that the hirers are tall enough an in the right weight band.

Such authorisation is rare and my local town council neither allows (nor to my knowledge has been approached) on any allowance.  See http://grahamellis.uk/blog591.html for my research and the byelaws!!

[Marlburian]

Concern from East Reading:

"TVP has been 'proactively stopping' riders to advise them of the law but users are often 'not interested'   Perhaps a £50 fine might make them "interested"?

Incidentally when I posted similarily on my NextDoor Neighbourhood forum, I entered "escooter" in the searchbox to find the latest thread and, inexplicably, NextDoor listed a number of local escort agencies...

[CyclingSid]

Many years ago I colleague of mine at college used a technical/scientific word process. He didn't get what he was expecting when he did a search for help with LATEX.