Sunderland e-scooters users praised for generally being "great"

The operator of an e-scooter trial in Sunderland has said it has been "pleasantly surprised" at the lack of anti-social behaviour by users.

In March 2021, 300 of the electric-powered vehicles became available to hire as part of a trial.

Operator Neuron said a few vehicles had been vandalised but users on the whole had been "great".

A meeting of Sunderland City Council's economic scrutiny committee heard the vehicles had had a "solid year."

During the meeting councillors asked whether the bright-orange vehicles had been involved in anti-social behaviour.

Oliver Irons, city manager at Neuron, said: "Pleasantly surprised would be the summary with the lack of anti-social behaviour, incidents of vandalism for example.

"They have occurred, there was a little spike last August in the summer holidays but when schools went back, it died out.

"As far as we're concerned Sunderland has been great so far, really limited on that front."

He added that as the scheme became more integrated into city life, cases of bad riding behaviours had "trended downwards" and the operator was learning to "manage incidents better."

It was also noted Neuron has a "strict penalty enforcement framework" for dangerous riding and illegal behaviour, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Mr Irons added that with regards to incidents of users drinking and riding: "I believe there was at the start of the trial, but for the last few months at least, if not longer, there's been absolutely no incidents reported to us of drink riding in Sunderland."

Mark Jackson, city council assistant director of infrastructure and transportation, said: "It is something we want to make a success in an ideal world, because we do believe that different forms and new forms of transport will have a part to play going forward."

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