A significant expansion of Oxfordshire's e-bike and e-scooter initiative is being planned.
The scheme, which currently focuses on city centre e-scooters, will broaden to include both e-bikes and e-scooters across a much wider region.
The central Oxfordshire area, covering Oxford, Botley, Kidlington, and possibly Abingdon and Wheatley, will be included in the expanded initiative.
E-bikes will also be introduced in the Science Vale area, around Didcot, Culham, and Harwell, as well as in Bicester.
Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) intends to appoint a single operator for both e-bikes and e-scooters throughout the county.
The expansion plan includes stricter parking controls, with hired scooters and bikes being parked only in mandatory parking locations pre-arranged by the council or the relevant landowner.
New parking bays will be created across Oxford, focusing on providing additional parking on the carriageway, not the pavement.
A portion of the hire fees will be allocated to OCC for investment in parking infrastructure.
The new contract for the Oxfordshire Micromobility Scheme will be a two-year full concession contract, with an option to extend by a further two years.
Around 1,000 e-scooters, operated by Voi Technology UK Ltd, are currently in use in Oxford city under a full concession contract awarded by the council in 2023.
Hire e-bikes were commercially introduced in Oxford city by Voi Technology UK Ltd in July 2024, and Lime Micromobility in September 2024.
Currently, around 200 hire e-bikes operate in Oxford.
The proposed expansion of the micromobility scheme, however, raises concerns about the impact on disabled residents.
Poorly parked or unmanaged vehicles, and poor rider behaviour, can impede pedestrians, including disabled people, older residents, people with visual impairments, and those pushing prams, by reducing footway width and blocking key routes
Lord Krebs speaking on the matter in the House of Lords said: "Where I live in Oxford, one of the problems with e-bikes and e-scooters is that all too often they're dumped on the footpath, blocking the way particularly for mothers with prams and pushchairs and for elderly people and the sight impaired."
“In this context I note that Kensington and Chelsea council in the last 18 months have removed over 2,500 illegally parked e-bikes and e-scooters and charged the operators £210,000 for doing so."
Peter Hitchens, author and newspaper columnist, has consistently called for the licensing of e-scooters and e-bikes.
He said the e-scooters and e-bikes are an absolute "mess" and "everywhere" and said there has been an "experiment" for more than four years that nobody knows if it has succeeded or not.
The writer said the laws in the UK give the council's "no powers" or control over any area of the bikes or scooters.
