London Mayor calls e-bikes in capital ‘wild west’

Do Londoners think more regulation is needed?

Transcript

00:00yes autumn is well and truly here isn't it london's streets have become a new kind of frontier

00:06with the mayor comparing the city's explosion of dockless e-bikes to the lawless land of old

00:14western movies uh dockless higher bikes popular cheap and zero emission have quickly become part

00:22of the daily life for many londoners in the capital micro mobility is being hailed as the

00:29future of urban transport offering quick alternatives to cars buses and the tube

00:36however the fast growing sector remains largely unregulated and concerns are mounting over safety

00:45as growing numbers of inexperienced cyclists take to busy roads on the whole i think that i think

00:52they're good because i think that it's great for people to have a way to get around the city that's

00:56not like cars um but i do i have noticed for example a lot of people that go up on the pavements

01:04i cycle myself and uh but i have my own bike so i've noticed that people on line bikes i think

01:09are more likely to like run red lights and go up on pavements i am i use line bikes so i enjoy them

01:16but i understand that they are a bit of an inconvenience for people who do not use them

01:21especially people who might be visually impaired or like in within a wheelchair that they can block

01:26sidewalks or places that are more accessible for them to be walking um so i think line bikes are

01:32probably a positive thing but i think the sort of infrastructure around the city to make sure that

01:37it's safer and easier for people probably has not been put in place yet and probably should be

01:42probably people who got on a line bike haven't necessarily thought as much about the process of

01:49cycling and what you're supposed to do in order to ride a bike around a busy city like london

01:53because it's so easy to just pick one up and go uh i think if you go to the effort of like buying a

01:58bike and sort of being a cyclist then you've probably given it a little bit more thought i've never used

02:04them i have been curious um yes i wish they would because some people just throw them everywhere

02:11blocking um the pavements um so yeah if there's a stricter law or rule that they have to put it

02:19back in where they go from or in a bike i don't know area area i mean you see bikes all over the

02:26place i think they're incredibly useful i think they will grow in popularity and they're a great

02:31way to get around a busy city so i'm not against them at all but i definitely think something needs

02:36to be done about where they're stationed because for you know people are not able-bodied it's not great

02:43right if you if you have to kind of get past a massive mountain of e-bikes just to cross a road

02:48so um i think probably you know it's it's something that needs to be improved on and resolved but i don't

02:55think e-bikes are going anywhere