A few days ago a pedicab (or rickshaw), decked out in luminous pink, collided with a red London bus in the early hours of the morning. Three people were hurt, two seriously. I won’t delve into the rights and wrongs of what happened; you can see a partial video on social media and there are reports the pedicab was stolen. This is not about one particular accident but about the perils on the streets of London and other cities, occasioned by wildly incompatible vehicles competing for space, by ever more reckless riders and drivers, but above all by the disgraceful and potentially lethal lack of interest shown by the authorities – any authorities.
As someone who drives less and less in central London, but dimly recalls a time of exemplary lane discipline, punctilious halting for red lights and zebra crossings, a generally forgiving attitude to out-of-town drivers losing the plot at Hyde Park Corner, and the occasional, delightful – and legal – 40mph spree along Park Lane, I admit that anything I say may be dismissed as nostalgia. Whether as driver, pedestrian or public transport user, however, it seems to me that disproportionate dangers accompany two particular sorts of conveyance: the pedicabs already mentioned and e-scooters.
Pedicabs and e-scooters, you see, are considered eco-friendly, youth-orientated and fun
They have their specifics, of course. Pedicabs are fragile, wayward and take up a lot of road space, whether in motion or jostling for trade at their unofficial pick-up points. Their blaring loudspeakers and flashing lights disturb locals’ sleep, and there are numerous complaints about extortionate fares. It was actually amazing to me that they were ever allowed to operate in London, let alone mix in with other traffic. Then again, there seems never to have been an actual decision to allow them, they just appeared, multiplied organically, and supposedly had to be given a free rein as being classed as stagecoaches, which have needed no licence or anything since the mid-19th century. Objections – from cabbies and other road users – were never enough to command attention until a couple of years ago – of which more later.
E-scooters, aside from having become a vehicle of choice for phone-snatchers and drug-dealers, are a different sort of plague, whether weaving from pavement to road and back again, the driver fixed on his (rarely her) phone for navigation, or abandoned wherever in the name of ‘free docking’. They – that is to say their riders – are even less observant of the HIghway Code than the average London cyclist, which is saying a lot.
I don’t recall having seen even one e-scooter stop for a red light, and have come within inches of being knocked down by one when the green light invites pedestrians to cross. (Friends have been less fortunate.) The impunity does not stop there. Were I to drive even a couple of miles over the now almost blanket 20mph limit, the chances of being ticketed are high. The same rule doesn’t seem to apply to e-scooters and e-bikes, which regularly speed past (on the inside) without a care.
So, yes, pedicabs and e-scooters are different. But they have one feature in common: what seems a shared determination on the part of the Mayor, Transport for London, local authorities and central government to turn a blind eye to the disorder for as long as they possibly can. Pedicabs and e-scooters, you see, are considered eco-friendly, youth-orientated and fun, part of the vibrant and hip urban cool in which London fancies itself a global leader.
Reliable data on casualties is hard to come by, with injuries from e-scooter accidents in particular believed to be greatly under-reported. But the incidence seems not yet to have reached the point where this live and let live attitude is seriously challenged. Ah yes, say the various authorities in response to complaints, we’re working on it. We’re consulting, it’s a pilot, we’re still at the trial stage. Last year, the outgoing Conservative government managed, at the third attempt in as many years, to pass a law providing for the regulation of pedicabs, to include licensing, safety and insurance requirements. Any rejoicing, though, came too soon. The law as it is framed provides only for Transport for London to enact, and enforce, any regulation. So guess what? TfL launched a consultation – which excludes banning the beasts outright – and has so far produced… absolutely nothing.
Pedicab drivers can, it is true, be fined for disturbing the peace and extortion (if you can catch them) for overcharging – and Westminster Council says it conducts monthly patrols, with what seems a paltry £30,000 reaped in fines since 2021. But licensing, insurance and the rest? There is still a way to go.
The situation with e-scooters, if anything, reflects even worse on the powers-that-be. The law as it stands has two tracks: hiring and owning. You can legally hire one if you are over a certain age (which differs according to the scheme) and have a driving licence and insurance. It is also permitted to own an e-scooter – but not to use it on public thoroughfares, because – and here it is hard not to laugh – you cannot legally insure it, even though you can buy an e-scooter at internet outlets and shops all over the land. As for your chances of being stopped and having your illegal steed confiscated (which is surely what should happen), observation suggests something approaching zero.
There must be hundreds, nay, thousands, of e-scooters being ridden illegally in UK cities every hour of every day, to the detriment of other road and pavement users. But no one sees fit to do anything about it because the whole arrangement is regarded as only ‘a trial’, albeit one that has been extended four times now. And while a trial might be expected to have a beginning and an end, with a review and a decision on such matters as enforcement, in London and other UK cities, we are still waiting. Happy are the ‘citoyens’ of Paris who were given a referendum after five years of hired e-scooters, voted by a huge majority to ban them, and lo and behold, their will was done. Now there are far fewer, and only privately owned and compulsorily insured, e-scooters, which is said to have encouraged more responsible riding.
There will be those – including, it would appear, the authorities – who argue that what happens with pedicabs and e-scooters really isn’t that important, even though they have added dangers to streets, especially for pedestrians. But – as is so clear with the spiralling of shoplifting – impunity begets impunity. Your unregulated pedicab or e-scooter, with no registration plate or insurance, routinely flouting the Highway Code because it can, simply encourages other road users to follow suit, fuelling the escalating disregard for the safety of other road users I see practically every day.
In New York City a couple of months ago, I was reminded that even in the land where the individual and the free market rule, there are rules for traffic and they are enforced. Pedicabs must be licensed and conform to certain standards; e-scooters must be docked, and, wonder of wonders, there are still police on point duty in Manhattan and on traffic patrol. My (licensed) cab to the airport was flagged down and the driver booked for a lane infraction. Worries about missing my flight were mixed with envy at traffic rules enacted and enforced and despair about London ever getting any of its old-fashioned road order back.
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