Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised a crackdown on the “annoying” parking of e-bikes, similar to those often seen scattered across Liverpool city centre, by introducing “new standards” to give communities more control over where e-bikes are parked and how many can be left in one place.
New standards for e-bike parking
Posting on social media, Mr Burnham said the move was a “small but important everyday fix to make our streets safer.” He said the government wants to crack down on people riding drunk, underage or on pavements, with clear consequences for breaking the rules.
“For most people, e-bikes make getting around easier - but sometimes, they do the opposite,” he said. “When they block pavements, or are used irresponsibly, they can be annoying for everyone else. So, I want to sort it.”
Bolt's expansion in Liverpool
Earlier this year, the Estonian firm behind the new fleet of scooters across Liverpool vowed to “get this sorted” after images showed the hire vehicles left strewn across the city. Bolt launched 2,000 e-scooters and 150 e-bikes across Liverpool in February, representing an extension of the service into wider areas of the city as far as Speke and Garston.
Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Liverpool marks Bolt’s latest foray into the UK market and its first city in this country to host scooters.
Previous operator's exit
Previous operator Voi’s distinctive scooters adopted areas from Liverpool Council following the closure of its CityBike scheme. A cabinet report in 2022 said the size of the scheme reduced year on year, due to theft and vandalism, coupled with a lack of available funding to invest in new bikes. The scheme became unsustainable due to the annual losses of around £300k each year.
Voi stepped into the breach under a government trial system which had originally been slated to end in November 2021. This was extended until March 2022 to take into account the slower start as a result of the pandemic. Trials were further extended to the end of May 2024. Voi confirmed in an email earlier this month it would no longer operate in the city as of February.
Bolt's response and measures
After images seen by the ECHO showed scooters and bikes strewn over the pavement on Radnor Place, a Bolt spokesperson said repeat offenders would be penalised. Speaking ahead of the launch earlier this year, Georgia Heathman, Bolt’s UK policy lead, explained how Bolt would look to clamp down on those leaving scooters in an anti-social manner.
“We will be maintaining mandatory parking and we have controls in place so we will have caps on the number of vehicles that can be left in a certain parking bay,” she said. “We also introduce a different pricing mechanism as well so we have something called distance-based pricing.”
In a statement, a Bolt spokesperson said: “We have people out in Liverpool every day whose job is to find and repark vehicles like these. We'll get this sorted.” When Bolt took on the deal with Liverpool Council, the company took on more than 1,500 parking locations with expectation to refine once this system went live.
The spokesperson added: “Following stakeholder engagement, including reports from local charities about poorly located bays, we've already relocated or switched off a number of locations and we're continuing to review the network across the city.”
