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Since June 9, the largest kicksharing services have banned the rental of electric scooters in St. Petersburg. True, the ban lasted only two days in the end. What is the reason for this and what to expect now?
What’s going on
- On the night of June 9, the largest scooter rental services Whoosh, Lightning, Urent, Eleven and Busy-Fly announced a temporary suspension of services in St. Petersburg. In fact, since early morning, it was impossible to book a scooter through the application, and law enforcement officers took vehicles away from parking lots on the city streets.
- According to Whoosh representatives, the ban was initially temporary – until an agreement is reached with the city administration on issues related to the operation of kicksharing services in St. Petersburg, including speed limit zones and traffic ban zones.
- Users who have subscribed to kicksharing services will have their subscription renewed, and in case of a long pause, they will be issued a refund.
- It is assumed that the ban is related to a criminal case of hitting children committed by a client of a rented electric scooter. According to the Investigative Committee, two such cases were recorded: a hit on a four-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl, which resulted in the hospitalization of children. In this regard, on June 3, the offices of Whoosh, Molnia, and other scooter rental services were searched.
- According to the Committee on Transport of the Administration of St. Petersburg, electric scooter rental services managed to reach an agreement with local authorities on compliance with the rules for the use of personal mobility aids (SIM) in the city, which include electric scooters, scooters, gyro scooters, unicycles and other devices with an electric motor. On the evening of June 10, rental services started working again.
- Immediately after agreeing on new rules in St. Petersburg, the Sochi authorities announced their intention to limit the speed of movement of electric scooters along the streets of the city, and 35 more “quiet zones” appeared in Moscow with a speed limit of up to 15 km/h.
What does it mean
The emergence of electric scooters in the transport services market has significantly changed the dynamics of movement in many of our countries. Convenient, faster and easier to rent, transport has presented an excellent alternative to classic vehicles: buses, carsharing, metro. However, recent events have shown that if the authorities do not notice the trend in time and do not develop effective methods for its regulation, the consequences can be sad. Judging by the resonance caused by the events in St. Petersburg and how quickly the situation was resolved, this may become a kind of intermediate solution, a template for other cities. Now renting electric scooters is available in dozens of cities throughout our country – these are mainly regional centers, including those beyond the Urals.
It is worth noting that only persons who have reached the age of majority can officially receive the service of renting an electric scooter, but when registering in the application, unlike car sharing services, a passport is not required, which creates difficulties in monitoring compliance with this rule and unties the hands of unscrupulous customers.
In addition, until recently in St. Petersburg, unlike other cities in our country, electric scooter drivers were not bound by any speed limit rules. For example, in Moscow, the authorities have ordered rental services to forcibly reduce the speed of electric scooters to 15 km/h in popular public spaces such as Gorky Park. Moreover, the speed limit works in automatic mode – the scooters are equipped with GPS and when entering the “quiet zone” they smoothly reduce the speed to the maximum set.
Now, this initiative has reached St. Petersburg, and for good reason right now: on June 11, the European Football Championship, postponed for a year, will start, which will be hosted by the northern capital from the Russian side. As for Euro 2020, stricter sidewalk speed limits of up to 10 km/h will apply during the period, while after it ends on July 11, electric scooter riders will be able to move at speeds up to 15 km/h.
However, the question remains as to whether the enacted restrictions are sufficient. The signed agreement regulates the speed and movement zones, but it is not clear what threatens violators of traffic rules, and how kicksharing services will control compliance by customers with all the rules, including the minimum age. Let’s hope that this is only the beginning, and later more detailed rules for the use of electric scooters will be developed, because in unscrupulous hands such a convenient transport can become a lethal weapon.