Ms June Tinsley:

Ms Joanne Murphy will also make a submission on behalf of NCBI. NCBI welcomes the opportunity to discuss with the committee its position on the regulation of e-scooters in Ireland as proposed within the Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2021. Together with IWA and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, the NCBI has areas of common concern that we seek to highlight to ensure the legislation is robust and can guarantee the safety of disabled pedestrians and those with mobility issues.

NCBI works with people who are blind or vision impaired from across the country. According to census 2016, there are 54,810 people living with sight loss in Ireland. We provide practical and emotional support, rehabilitation services and other training designed to help people with sight loss live independently and confidently. In our view, now is the time to get the legislation on e-scooter usage right as their popularity is growing every day. It is an opportunity to learn lessons from other countries as this legislation will govern both private ownership and shared public schemes that will operate in cities.

E-scooters have a role to play in improving our carbon footprint and increasing transport options for people on short journeys, but guaranteeing the safety of both rider and pedestrians must be paramount. To achieve this, a suite of minimum safety standards must be enshrined in law. These include a prohibition of usage on footpaths or shared spaces; a requirement for specific parking bays; the installation of a universal sound solution, which is robustly tested and researched to allow pedestrians to hear them approaching; and a maximum speed limit of 12 km/h on foot of the issues highlighted by my colleagues from IWA and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. The legislation as drafted allows for maximum speed limit of 25 km/h and allows for local authorities to reduce this to 20 km/h in certain areas or on particular roads. However, we believe this is still too high. We are calling for this maximum speed limit to be reduced to 12 km/h. This would help to reduce risk for pedestrians and e-scooter riders. We are also calling for additional consideration to be given to lower speeds around certain areas such as schools, with the speed limit in this area being reduced to 6 km/h. Go-slow zones via geofencing in shared schemes may be one element to consider, perhaps, in subsequent legislation. The key issue is enforcement to ensure there is adherence with the speed limit.

On the sound alert system, given the silent nature of e-scooters, people who are blind or vision impaired will have no way of knowing e-scooters are approaching until they are extremely close and unless there is a sound omitted from the e-scooter. Since July 2021, under EU regulation all manufacturers are mandated to equiptheir new electric and hybrid vehicles with an alert vehicular acoustic system, AVAS. While this regulation does not cover e-scooters, itpresents an opportunity for Ireland to lead out onlegislation in this area. NCBI recommends a universal sound solution that has been tested in the local context and scientifically proven to be effective. Such technological research is currently under way and while it will not be ready when the legislation is passed, provision should be made in law to allow for it.

Given the legislation applies to both private ownership and shared schemes we believe the installation of an audio into the design of the e-scooter would be raising the standards of safety. Shared scheme providers are already looking at this, but it needs to be robustly tested to guarantee there are no unintended consequences and it is complementary to the sounds applicable to electric cars. In addition to this sound, we believe that shared scheme operators should offer e-scooters with bells which are easily accessible tothe driver without them having to move their handsfrom the handlebars.

I would like to give the committee a flavour of the experiences of some of our service users.

We conducted a small survey and found that of the respondents, 75% reported incidents on footpaths, 62% of respondents reported incidents on multiple occasions and 57% of respondents reported electric scooter usage reduced their confidence to get out and about safely. This is the prevailing view not just in Dublin as responses were secured right across the country, which illustrates that there is a genuine concern about the increased use of electric scooters and they should be appropriately regulated.

I will conclude by relating what an individual said to me:

I had a collision with an electric scooter around eight months ago on my way to work. Thankfully, I was not injured but the rider was knocked to the ground. I am very grateful this collision occurred after I had done extensive mobility training and was confident going on my usual route. If it had happened to me six months earlier it would have severely set me back, knocked my confidence and therefore stopping me travelling independently to work.

I thank the Chairman.