The Moscow City Duma asks to quickly tighten penalties for users of personal mobility devices

The Moscow City Duma asks the federal authorities to speed up work to tighten control over personal mobility devices (PIM). The capital’s deputies point out that the kick-sharing season has begun across the country – and the first accidents with scooters are being recorded. The new regulation has been discussed since last year, changes to the Code of Administrative Offenses have been prepared – and the documents need to be adopted now so that they work in the near future, according to the Moscow City Duma. The State Duma is ready to help, but government regulations can hinder the process.

The situation with SIM was discussed on Friday at a meeting of the working group of the State Duma Committee on Transport (it is headed by the first deputy chairman of the committee, United Russia member Pavel Fedyaev). Let us recall that last year the government adopted a “road map” for regulating SIMs to reduce the accident rate involving them, which has been growing for several years. The “road map” contains 27 different events, Ministry of Transport representative Vladimir Lugovenko recalled at the meeting. The most important ones are the development and adoption of amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses (tightening penalties for violators), to traffic rules and to the law “On Traffic Management”. But none of these documents have been adopted yet.

At the meeting, Moscow City Duma Speaker Alexey Shaposhnikov called for speeding up work within the framework of the “road map”. Previously, the capital’s parliament proposed to the State Duma and the government to strengthen regulation until April 1 – by the beginning of the season for using electric scooters and other SIMs. Tightening amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses were prepared by a group of senators back in 2023: they included a fine of 30 thousand rubles. for drunk driving on SIM, 3 thousand rubles – for driving together and up to 15 thousand rubles. – for causing harm to health during an accident. The other day, the bill was reintroduced to the government after revision, but the timing of its submission to the State Duma, and especially its consideration, is still unclear. At the same time, there is an alternative bill from the Moscow City Duma, which was submitted to the State Duma in February, and then assigned to the committee, but was frozen there. The Moscow City Duma has also prepared amendments to the traffic rules (with a ban on drinking alcohol while riding, using phones, etc.) and has already sent them to the government, but a review is expected only after April 19.

“As long as there are no changes to the Administrative Code, there can be no talk of any responsibility. This season, there will be more than 1 million SIM users on the streets of our city, both private and shared,” said Mr. Shaposhnikov. He proposed discussing the amendments at the end of April at the Council of Legislators in St. Petersburg, inviting government representatives, senators and State Duma deputies there. This, in his opinion, will help admit them into the spring session.

The head of the working group, Pavel Fedyaev, promised to “work through” this issue. He himself asked Vladimir Lugovenko whether it was possible to speed up the preparation of amendments to the law “On the organization of road traffic.” Among other things, they include the registration of all SIM cards in a digital registry, parking requirements and new control mechanisms. According to the plan, the document will be submitted to the government only in November. “We are talking about a fundamental document that will regulate a new industry. Is there any need to rush? – Mr. Lugovenko answered. “This requires discussion.” Let us remind you that regulations with mandatory requirements (for example, amendments to traffic rules) can come into force only from March 1 or September 1 – and no earlier than 90 days after the publication of the document.

In anticipation of changes in the rules of the game, SIM rental operators are trying to reduce the accident rate on their own. Speaking in the State Duma, a representative of the MTS Urent service, Maxim Mukhtabarov, suggested that the traffic police should transmit to operators data on cases of drunk driving on an electric scooter. The administrative fine, we recall, is 1.5 thousand rubles, but the operator could additionally fine the user 100 thousand rubles. as part of the rental agreement (it is signed when installing the mobile application). And Ksenia Erdman, director of the micromobility association, said that operators are developing a joint memorandum that will include new measures to control users, including increasing the amount of fines.

Ms. Erdman also recalled that in Russian cities there is not enough infrastructure for driving a SIM, and the regions are not allocated funds for this. In response to the reproach, Pavel Fedyaev suggested thinking about the idea of ​​a registration fee or some kind of tax for SIM, which could cover the needs of municipalities for infrastructure and parking for electric scooters. Mr. Lugovenko agreed that the idea “has the right to life.”

Ivan Buranov