The cabinet member overseeing Liverpool’s transport policy has admitted he wouldn’t have extended access to e-scooters outside the city centre “as fast as we did” had he been in post.
Commuters in the city have been able to access distinctive Voi electronic vehicles since a trial was launched in October 2020. Liverpool was one of 32 areas throughout the UK to take part in the rental trial scheme, commissioned by the Department for Transport.
Cllr Dan Barrington, Liverpool Council cabinet member for climate change and environment, told a session of the Parliamentary transport committee the scooters are now available across “80% of the city” and there had been a mixed reaction with people who either “love them or sort of hate them.” They have proven popular with riders however, with around 2.5m journeys taken by around 225,000 users since their introduction.
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The cabinet member told the committee of MPs how there had been initial complaints over parking and behaviour but an improvement had been noted over the last 18 months. He said he was keen to see e-scooters become the subject of legislation and admitted frustration at the decision by government to extend the trial on the vehicles until next year.
Cllr Barrington, who appeared alongside Matthew Pencharz, Voi head of policy, said Liverpool was looking to retain the use of the scooters moving forward and would seek to introduce on-street parking bays to reduce the number of vehicles being left cluttering pavements.
The men were questioned by parliamentarians on the need for a driving licence to access the service, something Mr Pencharz said was a “blocker” to users and Cllr Barrington admitted he had never actually used an e-scooter as he did not have either a full or provisional driving licence. On the expansion of the scheme, the cabinet member - who came into post in 2021 after the trial began - said he “wouldn’t have extended it outside the city centre quite as quickly as we did.”
On the launch of the e-scooters, they were first rolled out to cover Liverpool city centre, extending from the waterfront to the Knowledge Quarter, Georgian Quarter and the Vauxhall area to the north of the city centre. Owing to demand in December 2020, this was extended to include Toxteth, Dingle and Kensington – as well as key transport hubs St Michael’s, Sandhills and Edge Hill railway stations.
On the use of helmets, Mr Pencharz said while there had been talks over helmet usage while onboard a scooter, there was not a desire among riders for a shared helmet and there had been pushback on making them mandatory.
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