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As eco-friendly and useful as they are, dockless e-bikes can be a right nuisance for London pavements. We all know the sight –rental bikes abandoned in the most inconvenient of places, blocking prams and wheelchairs, creating a tripping hazard and generally causing problems for pedestrians. Sadiq Khan called it the ‘wild west’ and it’s safe to say that plenty of people have had enough.
In the summer TfL said that it was looking into ways it could solve the e-bike issue. Now, its plan of action has been revealed.
TfL is working with London boroughs to create more docking stations for rental e-bikes and e-scooters, has written to vehicle operators to ask them to collaborate on tackling rogue parking and plans to take action against operators who don’t ensure compliance with new policy.
E-scooters are already required to be parked in designated areas, so the new policy will help bring e-bikes closer in line with those rules.
Nearly £1 million will be spent on 7,500 new parking spaces to boroughs on top of the 2,000 that already exist. We won’t feel the full impact of the policy for a while though. TfL is aiming to install 800 of the spaces by next summer and at least 3,000 new spaces by the end of 2026.
This London council has already banned e-bikes being abandoned on pavements.
London is getting a new e-bike operator – and 20,000 more bikes on the streets.
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