St. Petersburg Considers Banning E-Scooter Rentals
Speaker of the St. Petersburg parliament, Alexander Bel'sky, stated that rules for users of rental scooters and kick-sharing companies need to be tightened.
Consensus
- The St. Petersburg parliament speaker, Alexander Bel'sky, called for stricter rules for e-scooter users and rental companies.
- Companies had previously promised to solve the problem of multiple riders on one scooter but failed to do so.
- In Mуriно, a fatal accident occurred involving two people on one e-scooter, resulting in one death and one hospitalization.
- The speaker expressed concern that the situation may lead to a complete ban on e-scooter rentals.
- Previous regulations in St. Petersburg already limited e-scooter speed and restricted movement in certain zones.
- Despite prior restrictions, people continue to ride two or three on one scooter, and accidents continue to happen.
Points of divergence
- The Permsky krayevoy sud rejected the appeal of e-scooter services 'MTS Yurant' and Whoosh against the city's ban on parking e-scooters in central streets. — gazeta_spb
- The prosecutor's office in Perm supported the position of the e-scooter services, but the court still sided with the city. — gazeta_spb
- After the ban in Perm, over 530 scooters were towed away, services temporarily suspended operations, and Whoosh replaced scooters with e-bikes. — gazeta_spb
- The city of Perm later also evicted e-bikes from restricted zones. — gazeta_spb
- In Perm, after the ban, pedestrian safety improved, sidewalks were no longer used as parking, and e-scooter-related accidents decreased. — gazeta_spb
- In Perm, there was no transport collapse; people switched to walking, buses, metro, or bought personal scooters. — gazeta_spb
- The experience in Perm shows that a full ban on e-scooter rental in a million-population city is possible without causing transport collapse. — gazeta_spb
Coverage (2 sources)
- Kicks can be banned from riding all over St. Petersburg - SPB RUZ newspaper - St. Petersburg news — Gazeta.SPb
- In St. Petersburg, rules for scooter riders will be tightened. Teenagers still ride in pairs and get into accidents — Фонтанка