Source: Ireland Live

Following safety concerns about the improper use of e-scooters, the Irish town’s Louth County Council has confirmed plans to include them with e-bikes in the installation of 41 mobility hubs. The council highlighted that the combination of its own safeguards, and e-scooter providers’ usage measures, should alleviate concerns, and that awareness about proper e-scooter use can be increased with the hubs.

The inclusion of e-scooters in the hubs in the pilot has been contested by local councillors due to safety concerns, but the area’s Louth County Council have ruled out excluding them.

Addressing these concerns, Louth County Council’s Director of Major Capital Projects and Infrastructure Delivery, David Jones, said there are e-scooter safeguards, including speed limits and battery power requirements, and added that a similar project was introduced in the Irish town of Wexford in 2024.

Furthermore, he notes that e-scooter providers have their own checks and balances for use of their e-scooters:

“People have to do an awareness course online and the provider has a mechanism to monitor the usage by certain users and if there is abuse of it, there is a three strikes and you’re out policy.”

Jones describes e-scooters as being a “fact of life” and that mobility hubs can be useful in increasing awareness about proper use of them.

“A combination of the regulations that have been brought in by the government plus the safeguards from the e-scooter provider should be able to alleviate concerns of the members in relation to it.You have to recognise the benefits of them, but clearly there are concerns and that’s why the regulations have come in and why we have safeguards as part of any future mobility hub in Dundalk.”