E Scooters and Their Use on Public Road Pavements and Cycle Lanes

As the use of E-scooters is becoming more popular Humberside Police have issued the below advice:

E-scooters or electronic kick scooters are becoming a popular form of green transport and can be bought cheaply from the internet and increasingly from high street retailers too. It is legal to buy an e-scooter along with other types of ‘powered transporters’ including Segways, hoverboards, go-peds (combustion engine powered kick-scooters), powered unicycles and u-wheels, however, as a mechanically propelled vehicle (i.e. having a motor) they are classed as a ‘motor vehicle’.

As the popularity of privately owned e-scooters increases some local communities are raising concerns about their use especially in relation to being used in an anti-social manner. Some neighbourhood policing teams are already experiencing an increase in privately owned e-scooters being used in their areas amongst a wide age range of users.
Classified as ‘powered transporters’ under UK law, e-scooters fall within the legal definition of a ‘motor vehicle’ in the UK and must follow the laws applicable to motor vehicles under the Road Traffic Act 1988. These include being registered with the DVLA, licensed, taxed, insured and fitted with number plates; at present e-scooters cannot meet these requirements.

Privately owned e-scooters can only be used on private land, to which the public does not have access without legal restrictions, with the land owner’s permission (e.g. they cannot be used on supermarket car parks).
This definition is also the reason why privately owned e-scooters cannot legally be used on pavements or shared cycle / pathways. It is an offence to use powered transporters on the pavement under section 72 of the Highway Act 1835. Please if you are looking to purchase one of these ask yourself where are you going to use it and if it will be used legally. We don’t want you to get caught out.