⚠️ E-SCOOTERS: THINK BEFORE YOU BUY ⚠️

⚠️ E-SCOOTERS: THINK BEFORE YOU BUY ⚠️

🎁Thinking of buying your child an e-scooter?

Before spending your money, make sure you know where they can legally use it.

🛴 PRIVATE E-SCOOTERS ARE NOT LEGAL TO RIDE IN PUBLIC.

A privately owned e-scooter cannot legally be ridden on:

❌ Public roads
❌ Pavements
❌ Cycle lanes
❌ Parks or other public places

They can only be ridden on private land with the landowner's permission.

👮 Why?

Although you can legally buy and own an e-scooter, that doesn't mean it can legally be used on the street.

For road-traffic law purposes, e-scooters are treated as motor vehicles, so rules relating to matters such as driving licences and insurance apply.

People caught riding a privately owned e-scooter illegally could face a fine, penalty points on their driving licence and police seizure of the scooter.

👦 Buying one for a child?

Please consider where your child will actually be able to use it legally before you buy.

Having no driving licence does not make the rules disappear, and riding an e-scooter around the estate, along the pavement or to school does not become legal simply because the rider is a child.

🟢 What about rental e-scooters?

Official rental e-scooters are different. Government-approved trial schemes operate in certain areas and have specific rules, including licensing and insurance arrangements.

Riders must hold an appropriate full or provisional driving licence, and rental scooters still cannot be ridden on pavements. 

🚨 THE SIMPLE MESSAGE

🛴 Private e-scooter = private land only, with the landowner's permission. 

💭 THINK BEFORE YOU BUY

An e-scooter might look like the perfect birthday or Christmas present, but if your child does not have suitable private land on which to ride it, they may have nowhere they can legally use it.