In the town that I call home (Nottingham) we have seen a new transport scheme. Yellow scooters.

On the face of it, these electric scooters may seem an excellent idea. Although I would suspect, not the most reliable!

The concept appears simple. The council dumps 250 of these electric scooters on the streets of the city each morning. If you are walking somewhere, and you see one, you pay by an app on your phone and scoot away.

Green Travel?

Green travel? Perhaps. Although you can’t plan on being able to find one. This means if you aren’t able to walk to where you are going, use the bus!

Due to the fact you can’t rely on finding them, you can’t plan a journey on one. So, for me, that means they are a lazy non-necessity. More than that they need to be collected each night, charged and dumped on the streets again.

Having said that, my gripe is not with the green credentials of these scooters. My gripe is with the users.

My Gripe – The Users

These things are abandoned all over the place. You might expect people to leave them neatly at the side of the pavement. But no, they just get abandoned everywhere. On a recent visit to a hospital I had to move 2 as they were completely blocking the pavement. I must admit to not understanding how people can be so lazy and ignorant.

Then there is the safety aspect especially considering the people that use them.

The company concerned clearly states that it is illegal to use them on the pavement. Yet that is exactly where they are predominantly used. However, if you want an instance of them being used on the road, try this –

Just after 7 in the evening. Dark. Wet. A major traffic island on the cities main ring road. Cue a yellow scooter being driven in the right turn lane approaching the island! Utter madness.

If this scheme continues, people will be injured, perhaps killed.

I consider this to be another one of this councils dubious decisions.

If the COVID pandemic has shown us anything, it is that a certain segment of the general public have no common sense.