Glasgow councillors recently backed a crackdown on off-road vehicles like quad bikes and “souped-up” e-bikes”.
They also said many people aren’t aware of the law around electric scooters, which currently can’t be used on roads or pavements in Scotland.
Cllr Keiran Turner, Labour, said pre-Christmas you could buy a “children’s e-scooter for £99 and an adult e-scooter for under £300” online, with two major retailers “advertising 25 to 30% off”.
“Yet, as things stand in Scotland, legally you cannot use them on a road, a pavement or in a park and that is not well understood,” he said.
“I don’t think for a minute that every person buying a Christmas present or every parent doing the school run is intentionally breaking the law.”
He said there needed to be “education along with regulation” to separate some of these cases from “those who are engaging in serious anti-social behaviour”.
Cllr Turner, who represents the East Centre ward, said he “regularly sees parents with children on e-scooters making their way to school”.
“In our own street we have seen a number of near misses, with scooters, e-bikes, dirt bikes and quad bikes. These stories can be replicated across the city.”
He added: “We need a framework that is well understood, takes account of legitimate uses for these vehicles in work and in active travel and crucially can be enforced when it is broken.”
Currently, while it is legal to buy an e-scooter, it is illegal to use one on Glasgow’s public roads, footways, footpaths and public spaces. They can be ridden on private land with the permission of the landowner.
Earlier this year, the Scottish Government’s transport secretary Fiona Hyslop said e-scooters will “inevitably” be legalised. Glasgow City Council supported trialling the scooters in the city in 2020, subject to legislative clearance from Transport Scotland.
Earlier this month, Cllr Allan Gow, SNP — whose brother David died after being hit by an off-road motorbike last year — secured cross-party support for action on the misuse of off-road vehicles.
Council officials are writing to the UK Government’s transport secretary, Heidi Alexander MP, to tell her councillors support considering changing the law in this area, including a potential vehicle registration scheme.
They will also offer Glasgow’s help in the process — and inform the Scottish Government that the council wishes to take part in a working group on “reducing the harms” from misuse of the vehicles.
Cllr Turner said currently the legal framework is “different for each type” of vehicle and in “some cases there is almost no framework at all”.
“It is an area where the law has fallen behind changes in technology and everyone recognises it needs to catch up,” he added.
