There was no fracture here to dwell on, and that absence is itself the story: from teenagers to pensioners, from men to women, the chamber agreed almost to a person that illegally modified e-bikes and pavement-racing scooters should face the same rigour as a speed camera on the A40. Nine in ten voters backed enforcement, a scale of agreement that self-selected online votes rarely produce on anything touching policing or personal freedom.
If there is a divide worth naming, it is the mildness of the one that exists: men were somewhat more likely than women to register doubts, though even among men the margin ran better than five to one for enforcement, while women who took part were unanimous. That gender gap looks less like a fight over liberty and more like a difference in exposure — those most likely to feel unsafe sharing a pavement with a silent, fast-moving device were also the most emphatic.
The result sits squarely inside a wider grievance about two-tier road policing: motorists snapped by fixed cameras for a few miles over the limit, while modified e-bikes and e-scooters — some reportedly doubling the legal cap — go largely unchecked. That asymmetry, aired repeatedly in the debate around Deliveroo-style delivery riders and pavement scooting, plainly shaped how decisively this vote broke.
The floor's most-respected Yes voice captured the scepticism behind the numbers, arguing that police "don't do shoplifting, burglaries, phone snatching" already, so the odds of them "intercepting deliveroo etc riders must be non existent" — a vote for enforcement laced with doubt that enforcement will actually arrive. No comparably endorsed case survived on the No side, leaving this less a debate the chamber settled than one it barely thought worth having.
5 Opinions
Scooters particularly aren't very stable at high speeds, and both tend to be in and out of traffic which is difficult for other road users. Mind you, I'd keep all vehicles to 20mph max except on designated motorways
Yes, and get them off of pavements.
Lets be less stupid, and require bike manufacturers to seek safety approval from the government, and prove their speed limiters cannot be easily bypassed. Then ban the import, possession or sale of non-approved models. Much easier to shred a container of bikes at a port, then deal with finding the idiots driving them.
I voted yes in hope rather than expectation, the police currently don’t do shoplifting , burglaries, phone snatching ( lines on the pavement!) so the chances of them intercepting deliveroo etc riders must be non existent. I do question the point about interfering with business if riders were stopped - do they bring any money into the economy? As to scooters, a hazard to pedestrians and drivers , councils are employing people to extort fines for litter why not for this?
whats good for the goose...