UK opens e-bike crackdown with on-the-spot fines on the table

The UK government wants to tame the e-bike free-for-all. The Department for Transport opened a consultation on Thursday aimed at setting national minimum standards for e-bike hire, so journeys are safer and pavements stay clear for wheelchair users and families with prams. Ministers say the current patchwork of local rules often leaves streets unsafe for pedestrians.

The proposals set a national floor — then hand local leaders powers to pile on extra restrictions. They also target antisocial riding: drunk or dangerous cycling, jumping red lights and underage users. Anyone flouting the rules could face on-the-spot fines.

Lime, Voi and Bolt have all welcomed the plan, saying consistent standards across the country give clarity and certainty to operators, riders and the public. Andy Burnham called the clampdown a “small but important everyday fix” that would make streets safer. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the government wants e-bike schemes to “grow in popularity”, while conceding they are “causing a little bit of nuisance at the moment”. On enforcement, she said licensing rules could allow for fines — but added: “What you can't do is legislate for every eventuality, you can't legislate for idiots.”

The debate is live in Wolverhampton, where Lime's green e-bikes landed in June. Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal says roughly 1,100 to 2,600 trips are made in the city every week. Nationally, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has described the approach to dockless e-bikes as a “wild west” that cannot continue.

In the city centre, Mia Chol, a mother of a young daughter, told the BBC that e-bikes can be “a bit daunting” as a pedestrian, and that they lack their own lanes in the town centre. She backed a designated zone for pick-ups and drop-offs and welcomed the crackdown on antisocial behaviour as safer for elderly people and children. Another mother, out with her toddler, said riders sometimes brake too quickly — though other people, including parents with pushchairs, said they had seen no problems, and a food delivery rider on an e-bike said he had not witnessed much bad behaviour.

Warinder Juss, Labour MP for Wolverhampton West, has seen it up close: an e-cycle passed close to him on the pavement at high speed as he walked to his constituency office. He said constituents complain about antisocial use and that “the general complaint is people are afraid of being in collision with these e-cycles”. Even so, he called e-bikes easy to use and environmentally friendly — and said they do need regulation.