Wheels for Wellbeing has said it is “very concerned” that organisations including Transport for London (TfL), a range of NHS trusts and other public bodies are considering banning e-cycles from being parked or used on their premises, and that insurers and landlords are removing permission for e-cycles to be stored in homes.
The charity says it considers the banning of e-cycles from public spaces and services and the de facto banning of e-cycles from private homes via insurance and tenancy clauses to be, “inappropriate, disproportionate and discriminatory responses to the low fire risk that the government and fire services agree is posed by legal e-cycles.
“Banning e-cycles from homes, from public transport and from important destinations in response to a low risk of fire in legal, appropriately-used devices fails to account for the huge importance of e-cycles used as mobility aids and for essential transport by many disabled people, who often have no other viable mobility options.”
TfL imposed an e-scooter ban across its entire public transport network in December 2021, but this ban does not currently include e-bikes. There have also been reports recently that some insurers are declining cover for e-bike shops due to the perceived fire risk associated, even though many bike shops are refusing to work on unbranded and unknown battery packs.
In a briefing statement, Wheels for Wellbeing has called on organisations to read the Department for Transport’s fire safety guidance on e-cycles, and wants employers and landlords to ensure their policies on e-cycle use and storage, “address the genuine safety issues arising from illegal and modified e-cycles without harming disabled people’s mobility”.
It also says insurers should distinguish between safe, reputable and legal CE marked e-cycle electrical sets and dangerous, untested and illegal e-cycles.
A bill announced in the recent King’s Speech that seeks to address the potential fire risks associated with e-bikes and lithium-ion batteries has been welcomed by charity Electrical Safety First (ESF) and the Bicycle Association (BA) as it aims to tackle "unscrupulous overseas suppliers" who sell unsafe products via online marketplaces.
Wheels for Wellbeing told ebiketips that while it “strongly supports” proportionate measures to prevent the sale and use of hazardous and illegal batteries and devices, “we believe that restrictions or bans on use and storage of safe, legal e-cycles by landlords, insurers, employers and service providers would be disproportionate, causing far more harm than they would prevent.”
It added: “We must ensure that measures taken to reduce fire risk are evidence-based, proportionate and appropriately targeted.”
The charity is calling for regulations to be brought forward to, “stem the tide of dangerous, illegal e-motorcycle kits, modification kits and low-quality, unsafe spare parts being imported into the UK”, and also wants the government to “address the exploitation of gig economy delivery riders, identified in government guidance as a high-risk user group for e-cycle fires.
“We call on the government to alter regulations such that the large organisations using the labour of gig economy riders are held responsible for the safety and legality of the cycles and motorcycles used by riders working on their behalf.”
