Tuesday, April 15, 2025
A couple of weeks ago when e-bikes were banned from TfL services, we mused on what TfL's announcement might be.
You suggested all kinds of things, but our collective opinion was that it was very difficult to be concise AND accurate.
• All types of e-bike, e-scooter and e-unicycle are banned except foldable e-bikes.
• Non-folded e-bikes, e-scooters and e-unicycles are not allowed on TfL services.
• E-bikes, e-scooters and e-unicycles are not allowed on TfL services, except for folding e-bikes, which are allowed.
• E-bikes, e-scooters, and e-unicycles are banned on TfL buses, trams, and trains. Foldable e-bikes are allowed.
• Folded cycles/e-Bikes allowed anytime on most services. Non-folding e-bikes banned.
• Electronic bicycles, scooters and unicycles are not permitted on TfL services. Please see posted signs for exceptions.
• E-scooters, e-unicycles and non-folding e-bikes are not permitted on most TfL services. Search 'TfL e-bikes' for more information.
We now have TfL's wording which you can see on this poster.
Their solution involves four sizes of typeface, like an optician's eye chart.
Big letters: No e-scooters, e-unicycles or non-foldable e-bikes
Smaller letters: allowed on TfL services.*
Small letters: Failure to comply may result in prosecution.
Tiny letters: * E-bikes are permitted on the Silvertown Tunnel cycle shuttle service and on the Woolwich Ferry
There's also a really terrible graphic featuring a bike, a scooter, a unicyclist and an electricity symbol, which may well sum up the situation but is so complex as to be substantially indecipherable.
"No e-scooters, e-unicycles or non-foldable e-bikes" is probably the optimum wording. In terms of importance e-bikes should be at the beginning, but the use of "non-foldable" would then be ambiguous so it's best at the end. Non-foldable is a much better word than unfolded which I'm glad has been summarily dumped.
Also the use of an asterisk means tube passengers are not being asked to think about the Silvertown Tunnel or the Woolwich Ferry, where they are almost certainly not going.
That was the poster.
Here's the announcement.
"Non-foldable e-bikes are prohibited on TfL services except for the Silvertown Tunnel cycle shuttle and the Woolwich Ferry."
This starts well and then gets bogged down in exceptions. Over half of the announcement is about where e-bikes aren't banned - two services used by maybe a few hundred cyclists weekly so of minimal relevance. Alas over a loudspeaker you have to say the asterisk out loud and this gives it undue prominence, lest some e-bike warrior be fooled into thinking they can't cross the Thames downstream of Tower Bridge. The announcement's also a triple negative with "non-foldable", "prohibited" and "except for" to try to get your head around.
Alas that's not the full announcement, merely the core chunk in the middle. Here's the full announcement which you can hear every five minutes at Whitechapel station.
"Customer information. All folded and unfolded e-scooters and e-unicycles are prohibited on TfL services. Non-foldable e-bikes are also prohibited on TfL services except for the Silvertown Tunnel cycle shuttle and the Woolwich Ferry. For more information speak to a member of staff. Thank you."
The "no e-bikes" message is utterly buried here because someone's felt the need to incorporate e-scooters and e-unicycles too. I don't know about you but I hardly ever see e-unicyclists around London, let alone sneaking onto the tube with their single wheel steeds. Sure they're banned but no way do we need to be reminded about this every five minutes, it's total overkill.
As for "speak to a member of staff" that's quite a good cop-out, and could maybe have been used to shorten the rest of the message to manageable levels.
What we've got here is a brand new no e-bikes policy the public needs to be told about, but dressed up in faff so that the campaign makes far less impact than it might. This is what happens when you plump for precision over simplicity.
And all because words are difficult, however they unfold.
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