Oxford e-scooter extension confirmed
Oxfordshire County Council and Voi will continue to provide public hire e-scooters in the city of Oxford, as the government confirms the UK’s e-scooter trial programme will continue.
The e-scooter trial has now been formally extended to the 31 May 2026, enabling the county council to extend its contract with e-scooter operator Voi until 31 May 2026.
Councillor Andrew Gant, Cabinet Member for Transport Management, said: “It is wonderful to announce our great relationship with Voi is continuing for a further two years. We are delighted to be able to offer people greener, more flexible alternatives to the private car for moving around our historic city.”
James Bolton, General Manager for Voi UK, said: “We are thrilled at the prospect of operating in Oxford for a further two years. It’s been an amazing journey building up the scheme from a small beginning to where it is now. In the last three years we’ve seen increasing numbers of people benefit from using our e-scooters as a safe, affordable and sustainable way of travelling which doesn’t contribute to air pollution or clog up streets with traffic.”
Voi has been operating Oxford’s e-scooter programme since 2021. There are now over 850 e-scooters available for hire in Oxford and they have been used to travel more than a combined 2.5 million miles through the city’s historic streets. That’s the equivalent of more than 100 times around the world.
Highlights of the last year have included a new e-scooter bay with six e-scooters at Wolfson college, and a whole-fleet upgrade to Voi’s Voiager 5 (V5) model.
In addition to regular in-person e-scooter safe riding days, Voi is also launching a brand new free, online safety school: RideSafe Academy for e-scooter riders from 16 June 2024.
Notes:
- More about the Oxford e-scooter trial can be found on the county council’s website.
- To tie in with government trial dates, Voi’s contract with the county council extended to May 31 2026 subject to the government e-scooter trial dates being extended.
- The scheme is closely monitored, and irresponsible or unsafe use of the e-scooters is enforced with user bans from Voi – the county council’s operating partner. Incidents of bad riding practices are well managed and 0.02 per cent of total Voi account holders (UK-wide) have been blocked.
- The public hire e-scooters operate 24 hour since October 2022 – subject to their continued safe, responsible and lawful use.
- The new RideSafe Academy supersedes the previous RideLikeVoila school.
- Voi also offers personal rental options. More details here: https://www.voi.com/blog/long-term-rental-scheme-oxford
For more information about this release contact the Oxfordshire County Council communications team on 01865 323870 or email press.office@oxfordshire.gov.uk
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