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While we recognise the fire risk posed by illegal e-motorcycles and unsafely modified e-cycles, this blanket ban on safe non-folding e-cycles being carried on public transport will disproportionately exclude Disabled people from making journeys.
We believe that reasonable adjustments must be made to the TfL e-bike ban to enable Disabled people to continue to travel with their safe e-cycle mobility aids on public transport, in order to avoid this ban being discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010.

Our recommendations:

1. Wheels for Wellbeing call for immediate implementation of measures to permit Disabled people to continue to take their safe, non-folding e-cycles onto services which they would have been permitted to use under rules prior to 31/03/2025.
We suggest that extension of the existing TfL Mobility Aid Recognition Scheme could be a proportionate, convenient and rapid option to permit Disabled people to continue using safe e-cycles as part of multi-modal active travel and public transport journeys.

2. Wheels for Wellbeing call for urgent extension of the above measures to enable Disabled people to take folding and non-folding e-cycles onto all public transport services that a specific device can safely be used on.

3. Wheels for Wellbeing call for urgent implementation of effective measures to reduce the numbers of unsafe and illegal e-cycles in the UK, including:
a. Making delivery platforms responsible for the safety of devices used by their riders.
b. Making online platforms responsible for the safety of devices which they either sell directly or facilitate sales (i.e. online marketplaces).

Key considerations:

1. Disabled people often need to use e-assist in order to be able to cycle at all. Our surveys indicate much higher proportions of Disabled cyclists than non-disabled cyclists use e-cycles. While some Disabled people use folding cycles, these are not suitable for many other Disabled people.

2. Disabled people are disproportionately excluded from transport services and from making necessary journeys, largely due to inaccessibility of transport.

3. Unsupportive active travel environments and policies– including exclusion of necessary mobility aids from transport services – are key barriers to Disabled people’s active travel. These barriers harm Disabled people’s health and wellbeing, social and community involvement, employment, education and family life,