Lembit set for scooter protest
Tuesday 9th September 2008, 11:40AM BST.
Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik was due to take to the streets today – at a maximum speed of 12.5mph – as part of a cross-party campaign to allow the use of electric scooters in public places.
The Montgomeryshire politician is one of a group of MPs and peers who will travel in convoy through the streets of London on Segway Personal Transporters from Westminster’s College Green to the Department for Transport.
Mr Opik and Tory peers Earl Attlee and Earl Liverpool will be joined by several commuters on Segways.
There they will hand a letter to the Government calling for legislation that bans the use of the scooters anywhere other than private land to be re-examined.
Segway are virtually silent, create no emissions and can be charged up in six-eight hours from a wall socket. The scooters are used legally in many European countries and 45 American states.
Mr Opik said: “The British Government seems paralysed with indecision. On the one hand, they say that the Segway PT isn’t legal. On the other hand, they are unable to point to a single scrap of evidence in British law to show why they should be banned.”
“In truth, the Segway PT is safe, cheap, quick and extremely eco-friendly. And they’re proven to work.”
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