Request ID: FOI-0381-2324 Date published: 07 June 2023
You asked
Please provide post 2018 statistics or reports regarding:
• The number of e-bike, electric wheelchair and mobility scooter user journeys by mode
• The number of e-scooter and e-unicycle user journeys by mode
• The number of incidents involving Front Line Teams (including station staff) reminding customers of the e-scooter ban or denying customers access to the system or directing someone to leave
• The number of incidents of enforcement agents denying a customer access to the system or directing a customer to leave the network or reporting them for prosecution
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-0381-2324
Thank you for your request which we received on 11 May 2023, asking for statistics relating to e-scooters.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked:
Please provide post 2018 statistics or reports regarding:
• The number of e-bike, electric wheelchair and mobility scooter user journeys by mode • The number of e-scooter and e-unicycle user journeys by mode
We do no hold the number of journeys by mode. We do measure the number of e-scooters that are being used around London through our Customer Pulse survey. Unfortunately the data doesn’t differentiate between e-unicycles and normal bikes or mobility scooters. It’s also not specific to TfL services owing to the ban of privately-owned e-scooters and e-unicycles.
• The number of incidents involving Front Line Teams (including station staff) reminding customers of the e-scooter ban or denying customers access to the system or directing someone to leave • The number of incidents of enforcement agents denying a customer access to the system or directing a customer to leave the network or reporting them for prosecution
The use of privately-owned e-scooters on public roads is illegal in the UK, as is riding any e-scooter, rental or private, on footways. Users in breach of those conditions risk fines and prosecutions. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is undertaking enforcement activity to tackle this and continues to develop tactics and plans to address the rise in the use of private e-scooters.
The MPS have also developed a training package on how to deal with the illegal use of private e-scooters under the Road Traffic Act. This has enabled various teams across the MPS to undertake enforcement activity to deal with issues involving e-scooters, including the MPS Roads and Transport Policing Command (RTPC), Parks Police, Violent Crime Task Force and Operation Venice Team, along with local policing teams and safer transport teams. They run regular operations targeting e-scooters. We fund the RTPC, which is currently the largest police command in the UK; made up of over 2,300 officers who work to ensure all journeys across the road and surface transport network are safe, secure and reliable.
Within Section 9 of the Transport for London Conditions of Carriage for Bus, Tube, Tram, DLR, London Overground and Elizabeth line services guidance is provided for customers in relation to the use of bicycles and scooters across the transport network.
Regarding items that are not authorised to be brought onto our network our front line colleagues and enforcement teams will engage with passengers on our network to advise of the conditions of carriage.
Data from our Enforcement Teams who work across all modes shows that 2,304 engagements have taken place with passengers since the launch of the e-scooter ban on the 13th December 2021.
434 passengers have been reported to our Investigation, Appeals and Prosecutions Team for investigation for breaching the ban / TfL Byelaw.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely
Eva Hextall FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
