E-scooters in Birmingham trial extended - Brummies react

Voi is set to expand its e-scooter trials further afield in Birmingham, doubling in size to include its suburbs.

The extension of the trial comes as plans to make e-scooters legal on public roads were included in the Queen’s Speech. So we’re here on the streets of Birmingham to find out from the people if they’d be willing to use one themselves.

Expanding to cover 80km² of Birmingham, the trial will more than double in size by adding more neighbourhoods Voi’s operations - despite concerns about safety.

This means riders can now travel across the city to and from Bordesley Green, Handsworth, Harborne, Bournville, Saltley and Small Heath, as well as Moseley (the old area only covered a small part of Moseley now this has been extended further) as well as Wake Green, King’s Heath, Balti Triangle and Rotton Park.

We spoke with Brummies in the city centre to see what they think about the expansion plans.

George said :“No, I personally don’t use E-Scooters. I see quite a lot of people using them around the place. I think it seems like quite a good idea - better than people using cars, I’d say. But yeah, I think they can be quite dangerous sometimes as well.

“Like you see people getting knocked off them sometimes as well. So I think it’s a good idea. Yeah, moving them into the suburbs, although obviously it would be better if they used bikes.”

KJ told BirminghamWorld: “I think they’re real good for the community, probably for the area - for the students and stuff like that to get around instead of taking Ubers and stuff like that - it’s just real cheap. You know what I’m saying?

“That’s it with that. Should be good. I think you should just keep them.”

Mark added: “I think the scooters are very dangerous. You can’t hear them coming. I mean, they’ve made them like a bright orange, but you can’t… when they’re behind you, they’re going like about 30 miles an hour. And the amount of times people are getting clipped, it’s a lot easier to walk on the roads than it is to walk on the pavement.”

William said: “Any motorised vehicle, I think probably should be licenced. I think, yeah. I think there are better, bigger problems to solve than giving people scooters. What problem does it solve?”

A message from the editor:Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going