Pros and cons of e-scooters

Enthusiasts praise their convenience but sceptics say they are dangerous and environmentally damaging

A young woman at an e-scooter stand
E-scooters are ‘more democratic than a bicycle’
(Image credit: (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images))

As the two-wheeled vehicles take over our streets, the rise of electric scooters, or e-scooters, has all the makings of a new culture war.

With more than 750,000 privately owned e-scooters in the UK, the nation is developing a “love-hate relationship” with this increasingly popular form of transport, said The Guardian. Although private e-scooters remain legal only on private land, the sight of commuters zipping around urban areas has become increasingly commonplace.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.