But still, many residents balk at the sight of their pavement space being taken away.
Just one week after e-scooters were introduced to Newcastle in 2021, a councillor warned they were being “dumped all over the place”. In Colchester, residents complained just last month about e-bikes being “abandon[ed]” on pavements, “with no consideration for others”.
Sushila Dhall, a psychotherapist who has lived in Oxford for 42 years, broadly welcomes e-vehicles as a green form of transport – but she thinks they should be parked on roads, not pavements.
“You can walk through central Oxford any time and you’ll find at least one pavement blocked by e-scooters,” she says. “Even just one scooter… abandoned in the wrong place can block a route.”
Under its deal with the council, it is the responsibility of Voi, the e-scooter operator, to clear up badly parked vehicles in Oxford. Voi told the BBC they are “working closely with the council and local groups to improve parking across the city” and that they ban riders for repeat bad parking incidents.
Oxfordshire County Council said that public hire e-scooters help to achieve “safer, cleaner, less congested and more accessible streets”, adding: “We encourage riders to use the e-scooters responsibly.”
Many authorities have responded to complaints by imposing tougher rules on where vehicles can be parked. In many cities riders are now asked to park their e-vehicle in a designated bay (with GPS trackers helping to ensure they do this).
But this doesn’t always soothe concern. For one, the parking bays are sometimes painted on pavements, not roads – meaning pedestrian space is still lost (as happened in Doris Suchet’s case in Oxford). Plus, riders don’t always follow the rules. The GPS is not totally precise, meaning often riders can simply leave a bike or scooter near a parking bay without incurring a penalty.