Electrically-powered e-scooters are now legal to use on Irish roads thanks to the passing of new legislation. There have been many concerns raised about the use of such 'last mile' forms of transport, not least that they are powered vehicles being used by people who may well have no training in how to use them correctly.
e-scooter road safety lessons
Well, the Irish School of Motoring (ISM) is about to plug that gap. ISM has teamed up with Voi, one of Europe's biggest e-scooter hire companies, to offer e-scooter road safety lessons. ISM says that the lessons "aim to help e-scooter users ride safely and to raise driver awareness of sharing the road with e-scooters."
Together, Voi and ISM are going to create an Irish-specific module for Voi's online e-scooter training school, 'Ride Like Voila.' The training will cover all aspects of riding an e-scooter, from the basics - how to start and stop riding, to where on the road to ride and how to interact with other road users and pedestrians. Voi is going to make the Ride Like Voila service open to anyone in Ireland to use, whether they're a Voi subscriber or not.
Teaching drivers about e-scooters
As well as that, lessons in how to make sure you're aware of e-scooter users, and how to mix appropriately with them on the road will be included in ISM's regular car driver training courses.
Jack Samler, General Manager for Voi Ireland said: "We're looking forward to setting up shared e-scooter services in Ireland now that legislation has been passed. In the meantime, I would urge people to complete Voi's safety training so that all e-scooter riders can be safe on the road and feel confident riding an e-scooter. We look forward to bringing Voi e-scooters to Ireland to help people complete short journeys and beat traffic jams. Voi e-scooters are a safe, easy-to-use, affordable, reliable and sustainable way to travel around towns and cities."
Learning how to share the road safely
Karl Walsh, Managing Director of ISM said: "Learning to share roads safely between all road users, from learner drivers to professional drivers and now including e-scooters, is vital. As Ireland's largest driver training company, an opportunity to collaborate on this safety training builds on our pre-existing safety message to now help protect e-scooter riders in parallel with other road users. ISM is committed to educating the emerging scooter community and is therefore delighted to work with Voi."