To the dismay of “Back to the Future” fans across Britain, it has been confirmed that hoverboards, otherwise known as self-balancing scooters, are illegal to ride in public, according to guidelines released by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The small two-wheeled vehicles, which are steered by balancing and have evolved from their handled ancestor the Segway, are not safe enough to be ridden in public or on roads, the legislation states.
Users will only be allowed to ride the “personal transportation devices” on private property, the CPS has revealed.
New guidelines state that the “self-balancing scooters would not currently meet the requirements of [the ECWVTA OR MSVA vehicle safety schemes] so are not legal for road use.”
They also state that using the wheeled boards in public is a violation of Section 72 of the Highway Act 1835.
“You can only ride an unregistered self-balancing scooter on land which is private property and with the landowner’s permission.
The Department for Transport would advise that appropriate safety clothing should be worn at all times,” the guidelines state.
The regulations have not been altered, but owing to the increasing popularity of boards, often sported by celebrities, police issued a new warning on Sunday.
Bur rather than dampen their popularity, hoverboard salesman Simon Benson suggested the warning could increase his sales.
“If the authorities give any impression that the use of hoverboards in some circumstances is unlawful, then I expect sales to soar.
“Clearly customers need to take advice, but millennials are not going to take kindly to the authorities using a law that predates the penny-farthing to tell them what they can or can’t do on the streets of Britain,” he said.
While the so-called hoverboards actually wheel along the ground, real boards which actually hover are likely to come on sale in the next few months.
They have been designed by Arx Pax, an American company, which will sell the gadgets for $10,000 apiece.
The boards will use magnetic technology and require an all-metal surface to hover over.