The city finally cracking down on the e-scooter menace

E-scooters are the bane of modern civilisation. They are the stealth bombers of our pavements. They are a silent danger to those who ride them, and a threat to life and limb for pedestrians and cyclists forced to share paths and roadways with them. They give accident and emergency departments unwanted business, thus imposing a significant social and financial cost on the wider community.

There is nothing worse than being out for a walk with your young children in a park or on a shared pathway, only to be nearly mowed down by a speeding e-scooter rider you never heard coming, who sounded no warning, and who obviously doesn’t care about anyone else.

Across the West, however, e-scooters are being promoted as a clean, green mode of personal transport. In some places, like London, they are being trialled as vehicles for hire, while they are still illegal to be owned privately for use on public roads and paths.