Council Consulting on Proposed e-bike and e-scooter Parking Bays |
|
Expansion of dedicated spaces aims to encourage eco-friendly travel March 22, 2024 Wandsworth Council wants to hear from residents about their preferred locations for new dedicated parking bays for dockless e-bikes and e-scooters. The network aims to accommodate the numerous companies operating across the capital offering hire of electric bikes and scooters. The council says that use of these e-powered travel options has grown hugely in recent months especially among younger residents. However, this growth has come with an increase in careless and thoughtless parking that results in pavement obstructions for pedestrians – a problem felt most keenly by parents with buggies, wheelchair users and residents with blindness or sight impairments. As part of its efforts to reduce the number of obstructions, the council has drawn up a list of 141 locations across the borough where these bikes and scooters could be safely stored without affecting pedestrians. If there is one proposed on your road, you should have received a letter from the council informing you. The full list of the proposed locations can be found on this page. Jenny Yates, Wandsworth’s Cabinet Member for Transport said, “We think these electric bikes and scooters offer an important and useful travel option for people. They are clean and sustainable and will from a key part of efforts to cut carbon emissions and improve local air quality. “But we are conscious that in some cases they are abandoned carelessly and end up blocking pavements, making life difficult for pedestrians, especially those with disabilities. “To remedy this we have drawn up a list of dedicated spaces where they could be picked up and dropped off without causing obstructions and where there is enough parking space capacity for this not to inconvenience other road users. “And we are working closely with the bike and scooter operators to ensure that if their customers don’t use these dedicated spaces in our busy town centres they will face additional charges or other sanctions on their usage. “We are writing to residents in the roads where we propose to locate the parking bays for e-bikes and e-scooters and look forward to hearing residents’ views.” The online consultation on the proposed locations is open until 26 April.
|