UKC

The CPS and the Metropolitan Police have banned swegways, hoverboards, self-balancing boards as too much fun at 6mph doesn't fit with Osborne's Austerity measures and they plan to encourage forelock tugging and curtsying instead.

Self-balancing scooters are illegal to ride in public in Britain, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The boards - also called hoverboards or space boards - are too unsafe to ride on the road, but too dangerous to ride on the pavement, according to legislation.

They are therefore only legal to use on private property and only with the landowner’s permission, the CPS says.

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-10-12/hoverboards-are-illegal-on-pavements-and...

Simon Benson of hoverboard distributor Ghetto Gadgets told the Guardian: “If the authorities give any impression that the use of hoverboards in some circumstances is unlawful, then I expect sales to soar."

The official guidance:

"I have been riding a self-balancing scooter on the public footway (pavement) outside my house, have I committed an offence?"

Yes. It is an offence under section 72 of the Highway Act 1835 to ride or drive a vehicle on the pavement.

In reply to winhill:

I was under the impression Segways have been banned except on private land, for as long as Segways have existed.

I guess more recent clarification is just because of the proliferation of these cheap "hover board" toys!

In reply to winhill:

I want to see those wheely-heel trainers worn by pre-teen kids banned and a few dragged through the courts as an example to the rest. Those look way too much like fun for the road or pavement.

jk

In reply to winhill:

Is this thread about the Conservatives economic policy or is it about the CPS following the law or some cliched effort, Daily Mirror style, to link the two ?

In reply to winhill:

I'm not sure if you see the irony in implying that they have "just" been banned, when you refer to legislation from 1835.

Though I suspect the law wasn't written with hoverboards in mind.......

In reply to off-duty:

That Marty McFly got around a bit.

In reply to winhill:

Having now read the piece I'm seriously disappointed to discover that hover boards don't hover. I was promised on Tomorrow's World in 1960 whatever that by now I'd be cruising round the place in my hover boots and they've still not turned up yet either. Come on, boffins, pull your finger out and get me my hover boots sharpish.

In reply to winhill:

I was under the impression that most powered vehicles that aren't explicitly licenced were technically illegal in the UK. For instance disabled mobility scooters are "not prosecuted" rather than actually legal for use on public pavements. I may be talking rubbish though as I can't remember where I had heard this.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:


Yup. Never mind banning on the road what about banning for sale due to one of the most misleading names around.

You might be glad to know someone is developing a board that can actually hover. Has the minor downside of only being able to be used on steel plates though so if you have a aircraft carrier handy you will be sorted but otherwise doesnt look so good.

In reply to KevinD:


Developing? Its here!

youtube.com/watch?v=ZwSwZ2Y0Ops&

In reply to The New NickB:

Correct. They are classed as motor vehicles so are illegal to ride on the pavement, but don't meet C&U regulations to use on the road.

Personally I want them on the pavement about as much as I want pushbikes there. Better off without them.

In reply to Reach>Talent:


No, that's more or less it ,except you have to be disabled to ride a disabled scooter, so legally, if grandma has a turn outside Boots and gets taken to hospital in an ambulance, only a disabled person is allowed to ride her scooter home for her. But there is no legal definition of disabled, so it's up to the discretion of the copper whether it's legal or not.

It would be trivial to allow the same for swegways or smegways or whatever they're calling them (the Chinese, less worried about copyright, just call them segways).

In reply to winhill:


Reminds me of when a mobility scooter was abandoned in the high street where I used to live and a 7.5 tonne flatbed recovery truck came and winched it away

In reply to Neil Williams:


That's not what the DVLA says:

All mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs can legally travel at a maximum of 4mph on footpaths or in pedestrian areas.

https://www.gov.uk/mobility-scooters-and-powered-wheelchairs-rules/driving-...

And unlike Class 2 scooters, Class 3 scooters are legal for road use, but do have to be registered:
https://www.gov.uk/mobility-scooters-and-powered-wheelchairs-rules/driving-... and
https://www.gov.uk/mobility-scooters-and-powered-wheelchairs-rules/vehicle-...

In reply to Martin W:

>

A Segway (or clone thereof) is not a "mobility scooter" nor a "powered wheelchair" - those two things have specific exemptions in law.

In reply to Neil Williams:


Apologies, I confused your posting (which was indeed about Segways) with mkean's remark about mobility scooters.

(I would suggest that it can help to avoid confusion, especially if you are replying to a post quite a way further back up the thread, by quoting the specific statement/question/assertion to which the response refers. And yes, I know that you can click on "In reply to" to see which post is being responded to, but equally the responder can make things easier for readers by clicking "Quote original" when creating their response.)

In reply to Martin W:
I normally do quote if I see any ambiguity, but if replying on my phone this is a bit awkward, and I didn't see any ambiguity as the several posts above the reply referred to "hoverboards" and the likes, you have to scroll a short way up to get onto mobility scooters.

But hey...

In reply to winhill:

They should ban selling them until they actually hover, nothing but misleading marketing.
Hoverboards year right, they don't even bother photoshopping the wheels out on the pictures i have seen.

In reply to winhill:

Probably go the same way as mini-motos - wildly popular for 1 Christmas and then killed off by accidents, a couple of fatalities and the police confiscating them on sight.