ARCHIVED - Spain looking to crack down on electric scooters and bikes

The Spanish Public Prosecutors Office is looking at ways to reduce the disruption that scooters, in particular, are causing on city streets.

Electric scooters and bicycles have in recent years been popping up all over the world, particularly in larger cities where traffic and contamination have been considerable problems for some time now. While the smaller, so-called Personal Mobility Vehicles (PMVs) have their benefits as they are far more environmentally-friendly than larger, petrol or diesel-powered vehicles, their appearance on the streets has led to conflict, especially with pedestrians.

Although there are no official figures, a study carried out by Fundación Mapfre highlighted that 109 people were injured and six killed in more than 100 accidents involving PMVs in Spain in 2020 alone.

With this in mind, the Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office has announced its intent to curb the disruption that, in its opinion, PMVs are starting to cause as they flood cities across the country.

It envisages two ways of tackling the issue: by making it compulsory for all of these new vehicles to have insurance; and by having police increase supervision and intensify breathalyser checks in the cities.

Bartolomé Vargas, the Public Prosecutor for Road Safety, explained at a press conference that the Office is studying a modification of regulations regarding compulsory insurance to see how these vehicles, which are now often in administrative limbo, should be covered.

As the situation currently stands, a PMV driver could run a pedestrian over and the victim could have to pay for the damage, for example. Legal reform formulas are therefore being sought to make drivers liable for their actions.

Regarding controls and breathalysing, Sr Vargas explained that at the moment, police test PMV drivers if they are involved in an incident, but he wishes to see regular preventive controls carried out and for users to be well aware of the possibility in order to encourage them not to drink and drive vehicles of any type.

Compulsory insurance for PMVs had actually been proposed by the Interior Minister back in 2018 but was never actually carried through. However, a royal decree was approved last November making scooters subject to the general traffic regulations and obliging them to respect the rules like all other vehicles.

Under the decree, single-passenger vehicles with one or more wheels propelled by electric motors are limited to a maximum speed of 25 km/hour and must come with a roadworthiness certificate.