Voi Bristol: Map shows new areas where e-scooters will land as trial expanded

Bristol’s trial of rental e-scooters is set to be expanded to cover the entire city with Hartcliffe, Lawrence Weston, Shirehampton and Avonmouth all next on the list to receive a spin on the controversial vehicles.

The expansion, set to be rubber-stamped by Bristol City Council’s cabinet next week, forms part of the latest stage of a pilot scheme allowing Voi e-scooters to be ridden on certain roads across Bristol in a bid to cut traffic and emissions.

A map shown to councillors reveals that the scheme will expand into huge parts of the north west and south of the city, areas that previously missed out on the e-scooters since the Voi trial launched in October 2020.

It comes after Metro Mayor Dan Norris of the West of England Combined Authority, which holds the contract with Voi, extended the project for the second time since its launch until November 2022.

Mr Norris told BristolWorld that he needed ‘more information and clarity’ over fire safety concerns before the e-scooters could become a permanent fixure, after an electrical fault sparked a huge fire at the Voi warehouse in Brislington last December.

To meet demand for the £15,000 expansion, councillors have been told that up to 900 extra e-scooters will be put on the roads, along with 600 new parking hubs, although most of these will be on pavements and not marked out.

The scheme as it stands covers about 65% of Bristol, but the expansion aims to cover the city in its entirety.

It will launch in two phases with the e-scooters arriving in the north west of the city in April, followed by the southern part of the city in May.

The e-scooters have divided opinion since they landed in Bristol, with some calling for them to be scrapped.

But there’s no doubt that the scheme has still proved extremely popular, particularly among young people, with millions of miles racked up across the city already.