Shared electric scooter journeys top two million since July 2020

Journeys made on the UK’s still developing electric scooter network since July of 2020 have topped two million, despite Covid conditions, according to a specialist site closely tracking the multiple operators currently live.

MindTheZag has built a bespoke modelling tool that pools the journey data of eight operators with electric scooters on the ground, with over 50 currently registered (though new schemes are being added regularly). The data excludes a further three operators who have not shared the anonymised data.

One operator, Voi, is apparently responsible for over half of journeys, according to the site. Operating about 60% of the represented tally, Voi reported passing one million trips total last month and claims that 100,000 of those have been made by medical and emergency service workers on the back of a scheme to offer the scooters to essential workers with free rides.

For context, London’s Santander Cycles share scheme racked up a record 1,120,620 hires in May of 2020 when Covid’s first wave was first peaking. This is likely attributed to a spell of sunny weather, Government guidelines offering cycling as an exercise format, as well as a shift away from public transport with Coronavirus a concern to the public.

According to the data collected by the site Voi is the leader by a wide margin, with the second largest operator believed to be Wind, accountable for just shy of 200,000 trips.

It is notable that, thanks to some cross border authority disagreements on their use, London has not yet deployed hire schemes, although they are expected imminently.

The Department for Transport is currently using the trials to determine a wide-range of considerations ahead of making a firmer call on whether privately sold electric scooters will be fully legalised for road use.

At present, despite runaway sales with retailers, electric scooters are only permitted to be used on private land. A further update is expected toward the close of this year with considerations given to everything from usage permissions through to design standards governing things like wheel size and deck width.

A summary of how things stand currently and the processes that both operators and the DfT are going through to decide upon the regulations governing electric scooter usage can be found here.