The rules waited for the movement – Newspaper Kommersant No. 187 (7388) of 10/08/2022

Large-scale changes to the rules of the road, which have been in preparation for more than two years and were frozen under the regulatory guillotine, have finally been adopted. The document contains updated parking norms under prohibition signs, additional road signs. Drivers, of course, will also appreciate the opportunity to present electronic rights and STS to the inspector. The most anticipated of the innovations concerns new rules governing the use of personal mobility aids – electric scooters, unicycles, segways and gyro scooters. Experts, however, note that there is still no complete clarity on this matter.

The main innovation of the published amendments concerns primarily users of electric scooters, unicycles, segways and gyro scooters. Today, they are considered pedestrians if the power of the electric motor of the device does not exceed 250 watts, or drivers of mopeds or motorcycles if the power is higher. From March 1, 2023, when the amendments come into force, all of them will receive the status of users of “individual mobility aids” (IMs) – vehicles “having one or more wheels (rollers) designed for individual movement of a person through the use of an engine.”

• The maximum SIM speed will be limited to 25 km/h.
• Children under the age of 14 will be able to move along sidewalks, pedestrian and bicycle paths, within pedestrian zones. Users over the age of 14 will be required to use cycle paths and cycle lanes. If there are none, you can use the sidewalk and the roadside, provided that the weight of the SIM is not more than 35 kg.
• Finally, it is possible to drive on the right side of the carriageway, provided that the speed limit on the section is 60 km/h, and the SIM is equipped with brakes, a headlight and a lamp.
• Special signs are also being introduced that prohibit the entry of SIMs into certain areas.

Document, remember prepared Ministry of Transport and traffic police since 2020. In 2021 the government banned make changes to the traffic rules due to the regulatory guillotine: officials demanded a complete reissue of the rules with the abolition of the existing ones. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Internal Affairs opposed, after fierce discussions in the White House, which lasted more than a year and a half, they achieved the exclusion of traffic rules from the so-called white lists.

Today, the regional traffic police proceed from the fact that all devices more powerful than 250 watts are motor vehicles. Therefore, SIM users are punished on a par with drivers of mopeds or motorcycles: they are sent for a medical examination, they are deprived of their rights, etc. But from March 1, 250-watt devices cease to be “mechanical vehicles.”

From this we can conclude that the maximum punishment that threatens a drunken citizen on an electric scooter is a fine of 800–1.5 thousand rubles. according to part 2 of Art. 12.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which applies to cyclists, drivers and “other persons involved in the movement.”

“We thank the Russian government for amending the traffic rules,” said Moscow Vice Mayor Maxim Liksutov on Friday (the city hall actively participated in the development of amendments). “Now this is the same full-fledged transport as a bicycle or motorcycle, which means that the owners there will be more responsibility.

Whoosh (a kicksharing operator) told Kommersant that the new rules will not lead to changes in the operation of the service – the speed of scooters is already limited to 25 km / h, the weight does not exceed 35 kg: “We assess the legal status and uniform rules as significant and positive event”.

“De facto, scooters were legalized without any special restrictions,” notes Anton Shaparin, vice president of the National Automobile Union. “Rights are not needed. How they will control the speed and compliance with signs remains behind the scenes: photo and video recording will not work, and there are not enough traffic police officers. Users most often do not have insurance either, all accidents will have to be settled in court if you catch up with the scooter. In fact, everything was allowed. A direct consequence of this will be thousands of people on the road who do not know the traffic rules at all, hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries every year.”

“For users of scooters that have the power to classify them as mopeds or motorcycles, little will change,” confirms Sergei Radko, a lawyer for the Freedom of Choice movement. “Although, of course, there will be confusion.” Viktor Travin, president of the Moscow Collegium of Legal Protection of Car Owners, believes that the application of such a sanction as deprivation is possible only in relation to users of SIM devices with a power higher than 4 kW: this parameter is indicated in a note to one of the articles of the 12th chapter of the Code of Administrative Offenses. The expert recalls that the traffic police is guided by it, choosing punishments for violators. The representative of the Electro.club community, the head of the Center for Individual Mobility, Mikhail Denisov, interprets the new traffic rules differently: if a person drives slower than 25 km/h on an electric scooter that weighs less than 35 kg, he is considered a SIM driver, if he rides faster – a moped driver.

The amendments also contain other norms not related to SIM.

For example, an inspector can be presented with an electronically issued driver’s license and CTC. Apparently, we are talking about QR codes that are generated by the Gosuslugi.avto application. Thus, from March 1, it will be possible not to carry paper documents with you. It has been clarified that the zone of validity of parking prohibition signs is terminated after the installation of the “Parking” sign. The absence of this clarification today leads to fines and the evacuation of cars standing in parking pockets.

Ivan Buranov