FREE NOW and Others Write to Transport Minister on E-Scooters

A number of e-scooter and e-bike operators, potential operators, and mobility platforms wrote to Minister For Transport Eamon Ryan TD to encourage the introduction of e-scooters.

The Future of E-Scooters

The letter, showed the involved organisations are hugely supportive of the work being undertaken by the Government to legislate for e-scooters as part of the Road Traffic Bill. FREE NOW and others were happy to see that the proposed legislation to introduce e-scooters to Dublin has been included in the Summer Legislative Programme.

They ask that the Minister ensure that the Bill receives its full consideration and passage over the coming weeks in order to allow passengers to enjoy the benefits of e-scooters in the Summer and Autumn. They also stated multi-modality will be a very important element of the re-opening and will allow people to have a range of transport options available to them.

They also ask the government to commit to a timeline to implement this important legislation. They said e-scooters have been found to be a safe and enjoyable transport modem many of the signatories of the letters have experience in different countries and understand the need to ensure the safety of the passengers and other road users.

They feel on top of that, they believe this legislation should be introduced sooner rather than later to allow all relevant processes to allow scooters to be deployed in the late summer or early Autumn. Of the signatories are Niall Carson, General Manager of FREE NOW Ireland, Will O’Brien, VP of Growth and Government Affairs at Zipp Mobility.

Fred Jones, Regional General Manager for Nothern Europe of TIER Mobility, David O’Reilly, Chief Commercial Officer of Zeus, Thomas O’Connell, CEO and Founder of Moby, Felix Peterson, Head of Europe at Spin, and finally Jack Samler, General Manager UK & Ireland at Voi.

The Programme for Government- published last year- included a pledge from the Government to ‘legislate for e- scooters and e-bikes’. And on February 1 this year, the Government approved the drafting of legislation to allow for their regulation. One of the main provisions of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill is to legislate for the use of e-scooters, and this will ultimately allow them to be used legally and safely in a public place.