Organizers of the world’s first electric scooter series say they are on a mission to promote and develop micromobility as a safe and integrated element of city life since the start of the race in London.
The co-founder of the eSkootr Championship, Khalil Beschir saw a role similar to that played by motorsport in the early days of the automobile.
“Yes, we are making a new sport, we are making an accessible sport,” the Lebanese entrepreneur and former car racer told Reuters ahead of Saturday’s race.
“At the same time we have a mission to help governments, cities, develop safer riders and work with cities on the right way to use these scooters.”
“This is where cars used to be in 1910,” he said of the advent of the number of electric scooters on city streets four or five years ago.
“People complained about them, hated them when they came to cities: ‘They’re not safe, they’re everywhere’,” he said. “We use racing for laboratory, safety, infrastructure, technology.
“That is the purpose of the ESC – to develop it, as motorsport and Formula One did with the car industry.”
Austrian former F1 racer and two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Alex Wurz, who is also the president of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), co-founded with former Brazilian Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi.
Formula One legend Nico Hulkenberg has a team and a lot of people in the background with links to motorsport’s world body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
The chain, however, has established its own commission, headed by Wurz, which aims to “regulate and promote the safe and sustainable development of micro-mobility in sport and urban micro-mobility”.
“We think we have a really strong product,” Wurz, who first started working on the concept in 2018, told Reuters at a former newspaper printing site in London’s Docklands, which ran the first was hosted.
“We have a huge opportunity to become certainly the cheapest motorsport entry to grassroots sport and then the career ladder up to world championship level.
“In addition to our sporting ambition, from the first minute I said that micromobility is such a hot, fast-growing topic and the sector is our responsibility to create a synergy between racing and road safety.”
speed restriction
Insurers consider e-scooters to be inherently more dangerous than bikes or cars, while some cities have speed restrictions and tighter regulations in testing projects for e-scooter providers.
In London, electric scooters are a common sight, but are currently only legal on private land or through authorized rental schemes, although the government has said it plans new rules to expand use.
Wurz said it was “mind-blowing” how many interested cities and stakeholders had contacted ESC, and they expected the impact to be on urban design.
“The way we are consuming mobility is fundamentally changing,” he said.
“In the future some of our roads will become truly living spaces, a shared space where you walk, some on bicycles, some on electric scooters and we need to coexist.
“And we can. That’s the journey – to educate people, to regulate, to build engineering. How we are different but still together. The law has to be in line.”
Raced by 30 riders from 10 teams, the eSkootr machines weigh around 40kg and have two six kw motors with a top speed of over 100kph.
The tires are manufactured from vegetable oil and the grip allows male and female riders – from sports ranging from snowboarding and speed skating to hockey, cycling and motorbikes – to a 60-degree incline in corners.
The inaugural winner of the 12-turn 470m course was Swiss rider Mattis Neyrod ahead of Britain’s Dan Brooks and India’s Anish Shetty.
Other races will take place in Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain and the United States, with Asia and Africa likely to be added from next season.
A global broadcast agreement has been signed to show races in over 200 countries on sports streaming platform DAZN.
Former Britain’s BMX World Championships bronze medalist Trey White said, “I think it will go on. Whatever I’ve told about it and whoever has seen it, they think it’s going to be very interesting and fun.” Is.” “I just loved it.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, Editing by Ed Osmond)
0 notes
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
for the latest auto news And reviewFollow carandbike.com Twitter, Facebookand ours. subscribe to youtube Channel.