What is the Slough e-scooter rental trial scheme
In 2020 the Government invited Local Authorities to run trial e-scooter rental schemes. These trial schemes, operated to a high standard, gather data to help the Government to understand the impacts and benefits of e-scooters, and to inform the future legal status of, and associated regulations for, e-scooters. They also gather valuable information on usage, travel patterns and ridership.
We introduced the Slough e-scooter rental trial scheme in October 2020, commissioning Neuron Mobility to operate 300 dockless e-scooters.
The Government has confirmed that the existing e-scooter rental trial schemes can now run until May 2024, when they will make a formal decision on whether to fully legalise the use of e-scooters.
We suspended our trial scheme on 30 November 2022. We will review the scheme and report to the council’s Cabinet in March 2023. We might restart our rental trial scheme in June 2023 until May 2024 subject to Cabinet approval and procurement. The restarted trial would help us collect more data to analyse the impact of the e-scooters. If e-scooters are made fully legal by the Government, we may then keep the e-scooter rental scheme permanently (subject to Cabinet approval).
Our e-scooter survey ran from April to August 2022 to help us understand residents' views and the impacts and benefits of e-scooters. There was no formal requirement to consult on the trial scheme. The results of this survey will be included into the report to our Cabinet in March 2023 and will be used to help us to make the right decisions about e-scooters and to inform how the service could be improved.