Have your say on rental e-scooters in Portsmouth in city council’s latest survey

A pilot programme of Voi rental e-scooters launched in the city in March, as the council, in partnership with Solent Transport, became one of a number of local authorities in the Solent Future Transport Zone to take part in the trial.

As part of this government endorsed trial, Voi’s regulated, rental e-scooters are legal on public roads, however privately-owned e-scooters remain illegal, except on private land.

Since the scheme's launch, 110,000 rental e-scooter rides have been taken in the city with 240,000 miles travelled, and there are more than 50 Voi parking racks across the city.

This represents an equivalent reduction of 25 tonnes of CO2 and a saving of 35,000 short car journeys.

The Department for Transport has asked all trial areas to look to extend their trial period to allow further time to gather evidence.

This survey will help the council to decide whether to extend the trial of e-scooters in the city past November 26, which is when the current trial is set to end, until the end of March 2022.

Cllr Lynne Stagg, cabinet member for traffic and transportation, said: ‘As the trial has now been in place for almost six months, we want to hear your views again.

‘Whether you use a rental e-scooter regularly, occasionally, or have seen others using them, we want to hear what you think in order to inform what happens next.

‘Your feedback will be shared with the Department for Transport as part of a review of trials happening across the country, and will contribute to deciding the future of rental e-scooters in England.

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‘We are committed to continuing to work closely with the police to help remind people that privately owned e-scooters remain illegal for use on public roads.’

The feedback gathered from these surveys will help the council and Solent Transport understand whether views have changed since the trial began.

This information will help to feed into Solent Transport's report to the government on the success of the regional trial.

The e-scooter survey runs until September 18. Visit travel.portsmouth.gov.uk/rentalescooters.

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