Birmingham’s e-scooter trial has been extended until May 2024. A council report highlights that relatively few injuries have been sustained over the course of over a million rides.
Micro-mobility operator Voi has been running the city’s share scheme since September 2020. The Birmingham Mail reports that in that despite some dramatic headlines, there have been relatively few injuries during that time.
A council report says that there have been 38 serious injuries and 372 minor injuries in 1,130,273 rides with the vehicles having covered 2.2m kilometres.
The most serious injury was labelled a "broken & dislocated shoulder".
There has been just one serious injury recorded involving anyone other than the rider.
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Parking, however, remains an area of concern.
Councillor Liz Clements, cabinet member for transport, said: "A third of the journeys that are taken by e-scooters would otherwise have been done by private car, so that is a strong argument as far as I'm concerned.
"But there are significant issues, particularly for pedestrians and anyone with mobility issues and visually impaired or blind pedestrians. We as local councillors are getting casework and complaints about them just being left up, haphazardly on the pavement, so I think we need to set expectations around docking stations.”
Birmingham city council leader, Ian Ward, said that "enhanced conditions" would be added in line with the retendered contracts.
