Friday, March 28, 2025
From Monday e-bikes will be banned from TfL services because they pose a fire risk.
That means no more e-bikes on the tube, the Overground, the Elizabeth line or the DLR. Currently they're allowed off-peak†, which is why I often see lazy delivery riders lugging their electro-steeds onto the District line and clogging up the doorway.
From next week that won't be allowed and e-bikes will have to stay at street level, protecting passengers from the dangers of potential conflagration. It's bad news for Londoners who've bought e-bikes as an integral part of their commute, whose sustainable micromobility travel options are about to be expunged. But as Charlie Pugsley of the London Fire Brigade says, "we welcome this move by TfL following their detailed safety review as it acknowledges the risks that we know e-bike batteries can pose."
But not all e-bikes. TfL could have banned the lot but they're allowing Bromptons and other e-bikes you can fold away because no fires have been reported erupting from them. Evidence suggests the main danger is from bikes converted into e-bikes, and because staff can't tell which have and which haven't they're banning all the full-sized ones, even if they're well-made and expensive.
And this exclusion of certain e-bikes has forced TfL's messaging to be awkwardly complex.
"Non-foldable e-bikes" is not the simplest of phrases, indeed it manages to include two hyphens as well as a negative. But it is I think better than "unfolded" which was the previous buzzword bandied about in messaging across the network. "Unfolded" was always a stupid word because ordinary bikes can't be folded, therefore by definition they are never unfolded. It always grated to hear announcements about unfolded bikes, especially that bloody message about unfolded e-scooters and unfolded e-unicycles.
All folded and unfolded e-scooters and e-unicycles are prohibited on all TfL premises and services.
E-unicycles are hardly common, and folded e-unicycles so abhorrently unlikely that the fact they need to be mentioned is absurd. But this is what happens when you decide to mention subcategories of wheeled transport - the complexity of the phraseology ramps up and dilutes the safety message you want everyone to hear.
Which makes me wonder what the new e-bike announcement is going to be and whether it's possible to make it simple.
How succinct can you make it without losing sufficient clarity?
For example if you look at that poster, even that requires an asterisk because you can't say "all TfL premises and services" any more, the Silvertown Tunnel cycle shuttle and Woolwich Ferry are exempt.
None of these quite work...
• e-bikes, e-scooters and e-unicycles are not allowed on tubes and trains
• Non-folded e-bikes, e-scooters and e-unicycles are not allowed on TfL services
• Only folded e-bikes are allowed on our trains
• e-bikes are not allowed on this train unless folded
So my challenge for you today is to come up with an appropriate e-bike announcement which could be played from next week. Can you be simple, clear and precise simultaneously? Here's a special comments box for your attempts. comments
n.b. Please only post potential announcements in this box. If you think someone else's message is pedantically inappropriate don't tell us, just come up with something better! For all other comments, whether about e-bikes or linguistic suitability, please use the normal comments box below.
† A pedantic apology: When I said bikes were currently allowed off-peak I was being over-simplistic. At present bikes are only allowed on some parts of some tube lines, not the whole network. Basically trains in deep tunnels are excluded, so for example Edgware to Golders Green is fine except between Colindale and Hendon Central, which makes the whole thing so complicated that TfL have to provide a map. Also bikes are allowed at peak times on certain lines if travelling against the flow, for example out of Shenfield in the evening, and these complexities require an entire page on the TfL website. This is how difficult it is to be simple, clear and precise!
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