National news Increase in e-scooter casualties Which? issues EV charging demands Which? is calling on the government to extend its planned reliability standard of 99 per cent availability to cover all public chargepoints, not just rapid chargers. Consumers also need the ability to pay using a single app, and be able to pay with a bank card wherever possible. It follows a survey of 1,500 EV and plug-in hybrid owners, conducted by Which?, that uncovered significant problems with the current charging network, including finding charging infrastructure thats actually working. Sue Davies, Which? head of consumer protection and food policy, said: Our research shows that the public EV charging infrastructure is falling short. The government must move quickly to implement its plans to improve the consumer experience of using the public charging networks by extending reliability standards across the full network and ensuring proposals for payment roaming make paying to charge much simpler. DfT parking data access The Department for Transport has entered into a contract with Rightmove to access data about off-street parking. The deal, worth 25,000, will help the DfT to better understand existing parking options as it looks to expand work on its National Parking Platform. Transport Bill on hold Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has announced to the Transport Committee that the Transport Bill has been pushed back due to lack of parliamentary time, but that she is pitching for a more narrow Bill to be introduced around the future of transport technologies. This will include regulation around policy decisions including e-scooters within a few months (see story right for more on e-scooters). Lorry parking shortage The Department for Transport (DfT) has published part one of its National survey of lorry parking 2022. The study, conducted by AECOM, looked at the capacity and utilisation rates of overnight lorry parking facilities in England, and included analysis of the welfare standards of formal facilities and looked at the extent of overnight parking in informal locations. During March 2022, a national programme of night audits was carried out within 5km of the strategic road network at both onsite parking facilities (328 in total) and offsite parking locations (4,068). Although the number of onsite parking locations is much smaller, they accounted for 65 per cent of all parked vehicles. With a total of 21,234 vehicles observed at onsite and offsite parking facilities, and an onsite capacity of 16,761, there is an excess of 4,473 vehicles against onsite capacity. The provision of lorry parking at onsite facilities is nearly at critical level, having reached 83 per cent utilisation level across the network, with the highest rates found in the East of England, South East and East Midlands. All three of these regions are at more than 85 per cent capacity, the critical level of utilisation agreed by the DfT in previous national audits. Meanwhile, the Road Haulage Association has called on the Scottish government to accelerate its audit of lorry parking spaces and commit to engaging with relevant stakeholders who can quickly address problems with lorry parking capacity. It is also continuing to push governments in Westminster, Holyrood, Stormont and Cardiff to take whatever steps they can to provide more, better, safer facilities for drivers. The BPA has launched Park Mark Freight, for facilities that provide lorry parking. Turn to pages 42-43 to find out more. You can read the DfT report at bit.ly/PNNov22DFT The Department for Transport (DfT) has published its latest report into road casualties. This revealed that although there was an 11 per cent decrease in casualties in 2021 compared with 2019, overall road casualties have returned to the stagnation trend of the past decade after a sharp decrease in casualties in 2020. However, it also showed a 900 per cent increase in deaths involving e-scooters in just 12 months. The report found that there were 1,434 casualties involving e-scooters, of which 10 people were killed, 421 were seriously injured and 1,003 were slightly injured in 2021. This is in stark contrast to the 2020 statistics, which recorded 484 casualties involving e-scooters, including one death and 129 serious injuries. Sarah Greenslade, BPA public affairs and communications officer, said: Before e-scooter usage grows any more, legislation to regulate them must be introduced, including the important area of enforcement. Read the report at bit.ly/PNNov22RRC 8 PN Nov 2022 pp08-09 National News.indd 8 26/10/2022 16:19