The electric scooter ban doesn’t make sense

Is there anything we use in everyday life which was not, at some point on its journey to acceptance, denounced as a menace? Certainly not cars, bicycles, trains and aeroplanes, all of which were accused of various hazards and temptations. To take trains, for example, some confidently predicted that their passengers would suffocate at high speeds – or that they would encourage prostitution or criminality by providing greater opportunities to travel. It should come as no surprise, then, that e-scooters have been treated in much the same way.

The government does, however, seem poised to act. In the Queen’s speech on 10 May it seems that a bill will be announced to legalise the use of private scooters on the roads. At the moment we have an absurd fudge which has all the markings of having been formulated to please certain commercial interests rather than resolve the issue of public danger.