Mr. Duncan Robertson:

Dott is very grateful for the opportunity to meet with the committee today. Dott is a European micromobility operator and safely operates shared e-scooter schemes in more than 35 European cities. We are pleased to see the legislative process moving ahead in Ireland and are excited by the possibility to bring Dott’s e-scooter technology to Dublin and beyond.

Dott is a safety first e-scooter provider. We established an Irish safety advisory board, which includes groups representing vulnerable road users, the visually impaired, the business community and transport researchers. The introduction of e-scooters on Irish roads has generated valid concerns among the disability community about the continuing safety of people with disabilities. Our safety board was established to ensure the voices of disabled pedestrians and those with mobility needs are understood by providers. Dott is happy to share any of the board’s feedback with the committee should it be helpful.

Dott has developed technology and research partnerships with companies such as See.Sense and Luna, as well as the University of Salford, which focus on improving safety for vulnerable road users. Through our partnerships, we are able to deliver first-hand data and insights about accident hot spots and the effectiveness of safety measures. Our operations across Europe enable us to draw on a broad range of experience, research and case studies to constantly help improve the safety and experiences for riders and the public.

I know the misuse of e-scooters is a concern. In managing illegal riding on footpaths and dangerous driving, we use unique e-scooter licence plates to identify individual riders and make it easier for the public to report bad driving and misuse, theft or misplaced scooters. We ban users who violate our safety policies. We understand the committee has concerns in these areas in terms of the use of private e-scooters but from the perspective of creating a shared-scooter scheme, flexible regulation is very important. Therefore, we recommend keeping the primary legislation as high level as possible.

With regard to speed, we welcome the committee’s focus on the regulation of speed. Dott previously wrote to the Minister of Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to recommend a number of mandatory safety measures, which included an upper-speed limit of 25 km/h. Our e-scooters would be capped in order that they could not go above this speed. We would also create gradually-reducing speed zones and adjustable speed limits in areas with high numbers of pedestrians or where riders need to drive extra carefully, for example, near schools.

If managed well, with the right safety measures in place, e-scooter schemes can reduce congestion, increase mobility and make our cities more liveable. One of the benefits of being second movers into the micromobility and e-scooter space is that Ireland can learn from the mistakes that have been made, and resolved, in other cities throughout Europe and the world. Dott will continue to engage with all the key stakeholders as Ireland moves forward in this space and share our insights and learnings from our operations abroad.