From: usenet@listmail.good-stuff.co.uk 
  
 On 7 Aug 2025 20:37:27 GMT, Roger Hayter  wrote: 
  
 >On 7 Aug 2025 at 21:15:32 BST, "Mark Goodge" 
 > wrote: 
 >> 
 >> Class 2 and 3 invalid carriages are motor vehicles. That's why they're 
 >> subject to C&U when used on the carriageway. But they're also one of the 
 >> categories of motor vehicle whch is explicitly permitted by legislation to 
 >> use a footway or cycleway. 
 > 
 >Glad to be corrected! So powered wheel chairs are motor vehicles. Do you 
 know 
 >where offences for misusing them are found? 
  
 Misusing them on the carriageway would fall under exactly the same offences 
 that apply to any other motor vehicle. 
  
 >I also note that using a mobility 
 >scooter when you are not disabled is (with exceptions) also illegal. This 
 >offence must be found somewhere. 
  
 It's a little more complicated than that. The exemption which permits their 
 use on the footway is set out in section 20 of The Chronically Sick and 
 Disabled Persons Act 1970 (which also sets out a number of other exemptions 
 from general road traffic legislation), but only if it's "an invalid 
 carriage complying with the prescribed requirements and which is being used 
 in accordance with the prescribed conditions". Those conditions are set out 
 in The Use of Invalid Carriages on Highways Regulations 1988 section 4, 
 which states, inter alia, that it must be used by "a person suffering from 
 some physical defect or physical disability", plus a few additional 
 exemptions for manufacturers, dealers, repairers and trainers. 
  
 The effect of that is that if the required conditions in the 1988 
 Regulations are not met, then the exemptions set out in the 1970 Act are not 
 engaged. This would mean that a mobility scooter or powered wheelchair used 
 by someone who isn't covered by the Regulations would be treated *exactly* 
 the same as any other motor vehicle. And, of course, one of the offences 
 which would then come into play is driving a motor vehicle on the footway. 
 Another is the requirement to display a valid registration plate (something 
 else that scooters used lawfully are exempt from). 
  
 What that means in practice is that it would probably be possible, at least 
 theoretically, for a non-disabled person to use a class 3 scooter on the 
 carriageway provided they modified it to comply with the requirements that 
 it would otherwise be exempt from (eg, fitting registration plates). Whether 
 that's doable in reality or not would depend on a whole host of other 
 legislation that I lack sufficient motivation to read in detail right now. 
 But they would never be able to use it legally on a footway. Doing so would 
 make them guilty of driving a motor vehicle on the footway, just as if you 
 drove a normal car on the footway. 
  
 Mark 
  
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