There are too many people committing too many crimes, most of which are a lot more serious than traffic offences, and not enough police.
Simples.
In my experience, this is going to be the case, nothing else.
40 years ago, CB radios (an American import) was quite the rage amongst us (then young) folk. Some had home equipment, but the great bulk of my social group, had radios in the their cars. These systems were completely illegal, and were pretty obvious to spot if installed in a car. 5ft whip aerials weren't necessary for in-car radios back then, it was something of a CB giveaway. I don't remember a single person being pulled over, much less prosecuted. It was so endemic, laws were changed to allow FM banded radios, while AM banded remained banned. (AM bands tend to wander.) We either grew out of chatting all night, or being 'legal' meant it lost our interest.
E-scooters are a marvelous tool. Relatively cheap personal transport, clean (in theory pollution free) and children don't have to leave them locked up in a bike shed at school, where they can be stolen or damaged. No pressure to use them on roads either. Of course like any technology, mechanical or electric, there are people among us who want to push boundaries. Almost 3 weeks ago, I saw two e-scooters roaring up a hill on the road that has a 30mph speed limit, and they must have been doing 40mph. (No helmets or body protection, prospective Darwin award winners.) I see motor cars doing the same thing on the same road. Motorbikes doing the same, and more frequently. I also see a couple of delivery bicycles fairly regularly on the same road. One at least has dual hub motors and a battery I might struggle to lift. I reported recently, I'd seen one of these fellas moving along without pedalling.....
These three examples, are what are often described as "victimless" crimes. Well, as long as the e-scooters and e-bikes don't create, or are involved in accidents.
The police are a finite resource. AM banded CB radios are still banned, E-scooters are banned anywhere public. Over-powered e-bikes, also banned anywhere public. We certainly don't need further legislation on the "banning" front. When the finite resource is so stretched it doesn't always respond to shoplifting, (seldom responds it seems) and it generally only provides crime numbers for car theft and burglary all of which are crimes
with victims, do we really want to move that limited resource away from crimes with victims, to victimless crimes? Shoplifting means your food bill is likely 5% higher than it should be. Same with many retail situations. Who loses out when a child uses an e-scooter to get home quickly from school (and maybe saves their parent/guardian making a car journey to collect them)?
The British government makes mistakes - all the time. One of the biggest, has been to try and cripple the use of cheap e-transport systems. I believe the reasons for this go back further than Trump or Biden. I think these bad decisions go back to 1835, when bicycles (penny farthings) were banned from footways. "Bicycles" of a style we no longer use, were forced onto largely unmade roadways (in the day), some 60 years before Mr Benz produced what we know today as the motor car. That law has never been repealed, although it is (thankfully), largely ignored. If the 'letter of the law' were obeyed, instead of 12 and 13 year olds riding their e-scooters on pavements when getting to or leaving school, they would have to ride their bicycles on the A6129 local main road which has a 40mph speed restriction. It's a single lane each way road, that delivery artics regularly use. What mindset, would have children riding bicycles on main roads with 20-40 tons of articulated lorry passing them at anything up to 40mph and within inches of them?
The mainstream introduction of electric vehicles was always going to take profits away from hydrocarbon powered car manufacturers, take huge revenues away from petrochemical companies, and from the government in the form of taxes. Despite the much lauded environmental benefits of "e" power, the government, any UK government, has done nothing to encourage "e" powered vehicles whatever their form. New e-vehicles, which tend to be fairly expensive, now have additional tax applied on purchase. While they make no visible pollution, they no longer enjoy (or will no longer enjoy) zero rated road/vehicle tax either.
Petrol or diesel free personal transport, provides no ongoing tax revenues for the government, other than on the price of electricity, which is a measly 5%. At the moment, some 62p of the £1-50 per litre you pay at the pump for your fuel, is tax. Where is the motivation for the Treasury to encourage the use of e-vehicles?
Luckily, the resources needed to enforce the petrochemical company demands, are just not available. The government needs for tax collection, are not yet so important they are willing to provide additional money for that enforcement. (Long may that continue.) Restrictions on the use of e-vehicles, should not force us into using petrol/diesel engined vehicles if we choose to use alternatives.
I'm not supporting e-scooters that go faster than (say) 8mph, which I think is fast enough. Nor am I supporting over-powered e-bikes. But I don't think our roads are the right places for scooters or bicycles. Especially not for young people. Nor do I think the respective laws on these should be enforced in any way. Not until "reckless" behaviour is seen anyway.
(Likely unpopular rant, over.)
