Rise of the Electric Scooter:
the future of transport
The electric scooter.
It’s the pinnacle of personal transportation.
It’s fun. It’s environmentally friendly. It’s a speedy trip from A to B.
But not everyone wants to come along for the ride. At least, not yet.
Exciting innovations being greeted with suspicion is nothing new, especially when it comes to transport. From the moment the first wheel began to turn, the road to progress has always been paved with obstacles – but is the electric scooter on route to being street legal in the near future?
To find out, we’ve turned back time to uncover the evolution of how we travel, from the wheel through to the era of electric mobility, and how it hasn’t always been the smoothest of journeys.
Follow the evolution of transportation chronologically, or jump to your vehicle of choice here:
The Wheel
The historical trail to the e-scooter starts here. Exactly where (and when) it starts is up for debate, but it’s generally agreed that the people of ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) got things rolling at some point around 4200-4000 BCE. The first wheel would have been a potter’s wheel, in the form of a wooden disc with a hole in the middle to accommodate an axle so it could be made to revolve.
However, it would still take quite some time before wheeled vehicles put in an appearance to make people’s lives easier. There was the question of propulsion too…
Evolution through revolution
It’s fair to say the concept of the wheel has really caught on during the last 6,000 years. In 2021, nearly 80 million new cars were produced worldwide.
Taking into account that each car has 5 tyres (4 wheels plus a spare in the boot), that means that almost 400 million tyres were fitted to cars across the globe in 2021 alone.
According to section 54 of the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839:
it’s illegal to walk along the pavement carrying or rolling a wheel.
The same goes for a cask or a hoop, and you’re not allowed to carry a plank of wood or a ladder either. This law is still in effect today.
The Cart
Having pottery was one thing, having something to transport it for trade was another. Bring on the cart. The earliest wheeled transport is most likely to have been a cart, according to carvings on pottery discovered in Poland from around 3635-3370 BCE. There are inscriptions of wagons or carts on clay tablets from Mesopotamia that date to around the same period too. These vehicles would have likely been fitted with a yoke, enabling them to be pulled by animals such as oxen. However, things were to pick up speed a century or two later…
Although largely superseded by motorised transport now, the ox-drawn cart can still be seen in action around the world.
In Costa Rica, the oxcart is a celebrated national symbol.
Oxcarts are still used there by farmers during harvest season. The Oxcart Drivers Day (Día de los Boyeros) takes place in the capital of San José every March.
Wagons roll (or not)
By the mid-17th Century, there was concern that heavy animal-drawn wagons were damaging the surface of British roads. In 1663, the first turnpike gate was erected on the Great North Road between Edinburgh and London. Collecting tolls from wagons and carriages to pay for road repair, the whole idea proved so unpopular that it was over 100 years until another turnpike gate was built.
The Chariot
The horse - stronger and fitter than the ox - could take vehicles further and faster than ever before. Fitted with spoked wheels, chariots presented exciting new possibilities: vehicles for entertainment, sport, and combat. Chariot races were a thrilling spectacle for crowds in ancient Rome and Greece and were added to the Olympic Games in 680 BCE. Entertainment often came at a cost however, with drivers and horses risking injury or death from collisions or crashes.
But horsepower had galloped ahead as the preferred form of propulsion. It would stay that way for thousands of years, until a climate event had inventors pedalling for the next innovation…
We can get a fast carrus
Today’s English word ‘car’ comes from the Latin word carrus, meaning ‘wheeled vehicle’. This in turn comes from the old Gaulish word karros, which more specifically means ‘chariot’.
Not everyone was hot for the chariot. After the fall of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, renowned scholar Cassiodorus (c. 490-583 AD) described chariot racing as
“an instrument of the devil”.
There was a feeling it was something of a “pagan practice” and all Christians were discouraged from taking part in chariot races. Soon after, the chariot fell completely out of fashion.
The Dandy Horse / Bicycle
1816 was the “Year Without a Summer”. A massive volcanic eruption created an ash cloud so thick it lowered global temperatures, causing widespread crop failures and famine. Horse numbers dwindled and they became prohibitively expensive to own.
A travel alternative was needed fast. In Germany, inventor Karl Von Drais created the Laufmaschine (running machine). It featured two wooden spoked wheels connected by a wooden frame, a saddle, and handlebars to steer the front wheel. It was pushed along by the rider’s feet and was more than twice as fast as walking.
Now known as the ‘Draisienne’, it was a revelation, capturing public imagination in Europe and the United States, and was affectionately re-named the “dandy horse”.
But soon riders took to the pavements as their heavy Draisiennes became hard to steer on rough roads churned up by carriages and horses. After a number of pedestrian accidents, local municipalities around the world took steps to prohibit the use of dandy horses, with New York City banning them altogether.
Soon, the dandy horse disappeared and, in 1851, Drais died penniless.
But he’d set the wheels in motion. In the 1860s, by attaching rotary cranks and pedals to the front wheel of a dandy horse, the first bicycle was born in France…
In the 19th Century, rumours circulated about a terrible affliction affecting female cyclists: Bicycle Face. It left women with a “hard, clenched jaw and bulging eyes”, looking “flushed… pale… with an expression of weariness.”
British Doctor A. Shadwell argued it was a real condition, caused by overexertion and a struggle to balance the bike. Others claimed it was a result of riding on Sundays, violating the Sabbath. The truth is that, in the 1890s, the bicycle was a form of feminism and free expression for women who demanded equality and mobility, and that worried members of the patriarchy, who colluded to shut such unseemly things down. Needless to say, Bicycle Face was soon disproven.
Seen it before?
If you think you might have seen a dandy horse recently, there’s a good chance you might be right. Although much smaller than Karl Drais’s original 1817 prototype, today’s balance bikes for small children are essentially a direct adaptation of the Draisienne.
Trains and Automobiles
While human-propelled transport took off, scientists elsewhere worked upon something entirely different: the engine. Self-propelled steam transport in the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw steam locomotives on tracks running across the country. Laws were strict. The Red Flag Act of 1865 required locomotives to travel slowly through cities and towns, along with a brave chap carrying a red flag who had to walk in front of the vehicles as they went.
This extended to early steam cars in some places, too. Steam cars had been in development since the late 18th century, but mainly failed to catch on as they tended to be expensive, slow, and difficult to run in cold weather.
The combustion engine changed that in 1886 with Carl Benz’s petrol-driven motor car in Germany. But people were suspicious. It was thought noisy and dirty, and a rich-man's plaything. There was also the question of safety, with many seeing it as a threat to cyclists, pedestrians, and horses.
Regulation was needed for the car to become a safe and popular form of travel. The 1903 Motor Car Act made it law for UK motorists to register their cars, and carry a driving licence for the first time…
Red flags for cars
Early laws for automobiles were similar to those for trains, and for many years some local governments around the world demanded that a man with a red flag walked in front of a car as it entered local towns. In fact, the US state of Iowa tried a law which required motorists to telephone ahead to towns along their route, to warn them that they were on their way.
Early cars didn’t have indicators. In the early 20th century, drivers in London began sticking their arm through the car window to show where they intended to go.
Many drivers would indicate with a ‘dummy arm’ when the weather was bad so they didn’t get their arms wet.
This led to the requirement of a set of signals approved by law which all motorists had to obey, which in turn became The Highway Code, which all drivers follow today.
There are plenty of reasons why an electric scooter is a great choice for getting around from A to B today:
- It’s fast. Models such as the Xiaomi 3 Lite electric scooter can reach speeds of 15.5mph.
- It goes the distance. The Xiaomi 3 Lite can run for over 12 miles before needing a recharge.
- It’s for everyone. Anyone of any age can enjoy electric scooters, and the Zinc E4 electric scooter is perfect for kids, with a top speed of 5mph.
- It’s environmentally friendly. Electric scooters produce zero carbon emissions and are the green transport choice when used in place of cars or motorbikes for short journeys. They also help to reduce pollution caused by traffic congestion and cut noise pollution too.
- It’s easy to transport and store. Many electric scooters are foldable and lightweight, meaning you can store yours or carry it around easily.
- It’s fun and requires minimum effort. Zipping around on your e-scooter gets you outside and is a stylish way to get from A to B. You’ll also be much less sweaty than if you’d made the same journey on a bicycle.
“Electric scooters produce zero carbon emissions”
Know your e-scooter law
In the UK, it’s legal to use an electric scooter on private land with the permission of the landowner. But it’s also worth knowing that:
- Riding your e-scooter on a pavement could land you with a Fixed Penalty Notice and £50 fine
- Riding while using a mobile phone is worth a £200 fine and six penalty points on your driving licence
- Drink-driving rules are the same as if you were driving a car, with the potential for court-imposed fines, a driving ban, and even imprisonment
As we’ve seen, the most popular forms of transport throughout history didn’t always have the easiest of starts, and it often took them a while to win over their critics. But the electric scooter already has so much going for it that we predict a bright future.
If you want to get ahead of the curve and enjoy all the fun, enjoyment, and sustainable benefits that the electric scooter has to offer, then we’ve got the best range of electric scooters for adults and children for you to choose from. From super-nippy Xiaomi electric scooters to child-friendly Zinc electric scooters, there’s something for everyone who wants the best electric scooter to help them join the micro transport generation and get around in style. And be sure to whizz back regularly too, so you can get the best deals and make the most of any electric scooters for adults sale prices and stay ahead of the pack.
