By John Healy of Healy Insurances

The Transport Minister Mr Eamon Ryan is preparing to regulate the use of e-scooters in the coming months.

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The current situation is problematic as under the 1961 Road Traffic Act, e-scooters would be classified as mechanically propelled vehicles. This would mean you would need insurance, road tax and a driving licence to use them in a public place.

This raises a number of challenges not least the fact there is currently no insurance market that is insuring e-scooters. So where does the minister go to next? Mr Ryan is believed to be looking at reclassifying the e-scooter devices as “powered personal transporters”. The users would be treated much as a cyclist, once the speed of the scooter is under 25kph.

If this legislation is passed users of e-scooters would not require insurance, road tax or a driving licence to operate the devices in a public place.

Clearly there is much work to be done on the legislation such as minimum age of users, speed of the device, rules around the use of helmets and lights and banning e-scooters from footpaths.

How safe are e-scooters?

According to the most recent Garda figures, there were 791 scooter related incidents last year of which 266 involved a collision. The majority of the incidents occurred in Dublin.

Paris was in the vanguard of major cities to roll out the use of e-scooters for hire and currently has a fleet of 15,000 available through three electric scooter operators. E-scooter accidents have increased in the city, there were 22 deaths last year up from seven in 2020. Parisians will now be invited to vote in a referendum on whether to allow electric scooter rental services to continue operating in the city. This referendum is planned for April 2 next.

Returning to our challenges in Ireland, will Eamon Ryan proceed with the new legislation? It would appear he has little choice, the numbers of e-scooters are rising and the current situation is a legal quagmire.