Scooters will be counted in the fall – Newspaper Kommersant No. 66 (7511) dated 04/17/2023

The rules of the road for electric scooter users that have been in force since March will only be adjusted after an analysis of “law enforcement practice”. As Kommersant found out, the Ministry of Transport informed Alexei Tsivilev, head of the transport commission of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, about this. Earlier, the deputy asked the government of the Russian Federation to postpone the entry into force of the traffic rules: according to him, the permission to ride electric scooters on sidewalks at a speed of 25 km/h poses a threat to pedestrians. However, officials want to look at the results of this season. Expert opinion is divided. Some believe that the rules need to be changed right now, without waiting for an increase in the number of victims. Others suggest waiting until autumn – and only then draw conclusions, while simultaneously preparing the infrastructure for a safer ride.

Recall that the traffic rules with the rules for users of electric scooters and unicycles have been prepared by the Ministry of Transport and the traffic police for more than three years. They came into effect on March 1st. Now such technical devices are allocated to a new category of “means of individual mobility” (IM; previously their users were considered pedestrians). For riders, prohibition signs have been introduced, restrictions on leaving the roadway, and a speed limit of 25 km / h has been set, which also applies on the sidewalk, where electric scooters are allowed to travel in certain cases. At the stage of preparation, such rules were supported by the Moscow City Hall and kicksharing operators, they were opposed by the Union of Pedestrians and a number of independent experts.

Aleksey Tsivilev, head of the commission for transport and transport infrastructure development of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at the beginning of the year, asking him to suspend the entry into force of traffic rules and send them for a new discussion. He wrote that the high-speed movement of the SIM on the sidewalks is dangerous for both riders and pedestrians. The government instructed the Ministry of Transport to prepare a response. In this document (“Kommersant” read the text), the agency says that the proposal to cancel and postpone traffic rules for SIM is not supported – this will worsen traffic safety. “We believe that the need to amend the rules should be determined taking into account the results of law enforcement practice,” the Ministry of Transport believes. “Due to the short period of application of novelties, practice is not enough at the moment.” The department does not provide any additional arguments; the answer is agreed with the traffic police.

“We will continue to convince people who made decisions about new traffic rules that the rules are unsafe,” Aleksey Tsivilev told Kommersant. The main problem is the speed on sidewalks of 25 km / h. In collisions at such speeds, an adult is severely injured, and a child or the elderly may not survive. The kicksharing season has begun and we are already seeing the first spike in accidents involving electric scooters.” The deputy cites the data of the St. Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University: on one day in April, eight teenagers who were injured during skiing were brought to them. The Ministry of Health of Chuvashia reported on Friday that on April 1-13, ambulance teams went to 14 victims who were injured due to traffic violations on electric scooters (two of them were hit by pedestrians riding on the sidewalks). There are no open statistics on accidents with SIM for March-April, but information about such accidents comes from different cities. For example, on April 12 in Cheboksary, a car hit a woman on an electric scooter when she was driving in the middle of the road (this is prohibited by the new traffic rules). In St. Petersburg in early April, there was a case when a woman on an electric scooter knocked down a seven-year-old girl. At the same time, there is no evidence that these and other incidents occurred precisely because of the new traffic rules.

“It turns out that we need to wait until a sufficient number of pedestrians are knocked down on the sidewalks,” Dmitry Popov, an expert from the St. Petersburg Traffic Management Directorate, comments on the answer. “And then the authorities will think about whether to change the rules.” The expert doubts that there will be “law enforcement practice” in principle: representatives of the traffic police said earlier that the police would not “chase” SIM users and fine them. However, this is still happening in a number of regions: the regional traffic police have already carried out raids in Barnaul, Saratov, Cheboksary, Tula, Ufa and other cities, fining violators of the new rules by 800 rubles. under Art. 12.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

Additional comments on the eve were given by the head of the Scientific Center for Road Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Mitroshin, speaking on the air of Radio KP. He believes that the increase in accidents is explained by the rate of distribution of electric scooters: “Private SIMs are being bought, and sharing services are developing quite like an avalanche.” Services, in his opinion, should be more actively involved in promoting safe driving, and regions should develop infrastructure for skiing so that SIM users do not drive on sidewalks. This idea is confirmed by the director of the Association of Micromobility Operators Ksenia Erdman: in most cities there is still no infrastructure (bicycle lanes, etc.), she says. “Conflict situations and road accidents will disappear as soon as we separate all participants in the movement,” she is sure. The Ministry of Transport previously sent relevant recommendations to the regions for the construction of infrastructure and parking for SIMs (“Kommersant” wrote about this), but Alexei Tsivilev says that most cities do not have the money for this: they need, according to him, “tens of billions” of rubles.

“I agree with the Ministry of Transport. What has already entered into force should not be canceled right now, it will only confuse everyone,” says Evgeny Litvin, co-chairman of the “Road Safety” working group within the framework of the “regulatory guillotine”. Based on it, if necessary, prepare new changes that will come into force on March 1, 2024.” Ksenia Erdman considers the increase in accidents with electric scooters to be natural, because there are more and more of them every year. “Moreover, a multiple increase in the number of trips on SIM does not significantly increase the number of accidents,” she noted. “The same thing happened at the beginning of the 20th century during mass motorization. Gradually, the accident rate with cars reached a plateau and ceased to depend on the growth of the fleet. The same thing will happen to SIM soon.”

Ivan Buranov