Portsmouth City Council expands rental e-scooter trial

Credit: Portsmouth City Council

Portsmouth International Port has continued its drive towards a sustainable future as it takes part in a city-wide rental e-scooter trial, alongside offering electric vehicle charging options for passengers and staff.

With the expansion of Portsmouth’s rental e-scooter trial, passengers can now travel by renting an e-scooter to interchange with regular ferry and National Express services that serve the port. This also allows visiting cruise passengers to have a sustainable option for exploring the city. Furthermore, staff working at the port, or at businesses nearby, have another environmentally friendly way of getting to the workplace.

Portsmouth is one of several cities taking part in a national trial of rental e-scooters. Portsmouth City Council is working in partnership with Solent Transport and e-scooter provider Voi Technology to provide rental trials in Portsmouth and Southampton as part of the Future Transport Zone (FTZ) Programme. The trials form part of a national approach to building a more sustainable travel network.

“It’s great news that we’ve been able to expand the successful rental e-scooter trial into the port. This will really benefit staff and visitors in helping them to reach their destination in a much more sustainable way. We’re working with all of our transport partners to help to build a travel network that supports a greener, healthier and better-connected future for Portsmouth, with cleaner air for everyone to enjoy,” said Councillor Lynne Stagg, Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation at Portsmouth City Council.

Matthew Pencharz, Head of Public Policy UKI & the Netherlands at Voi, said, “We have seen a growing number of people adopting Voi e-scooters to travel in a sustainable manner around Portsmouth, with over 214,000 rides taken since the beginning of the trial. By making our carbon-neutral e-scooters available to those who travel to and from Portsmouth International Port, we are encouraging even more people to leave their cars behind, reducing congestion and pollution in the city.”

As the trial progresses, the safety of riders and other road users continue to be top priorities for Portsmouth City Council and Voi. The Department for Transport (DfT) has made it legal to ride rental e-scooters during the government trial. To ride, users must be 18 years old or over and hold at least a provisional driving licence. Privately-owned e-scooters remain illegal, except on private land with the land owner’s permission.