Since the emergence of scooter-sharing services in Perm, the Perm city administration and the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate have been working together to bring order to the use of electric scooters and ensure the safety of all road users.
City residents also often express demands on social media to put order in the use of personal mobility devices. In this regard, the Regional Management Center of the Perm Territory conducted a sociological survey among residents. The survey was conducted from March 4 to 9 among social media users. 605 people participated in the vote.
86 percent of surveyed residents noted that they do not use electric scooters (13 percent use them), among Perm residents this figure was 80 percent (19 percent use them). At the same time, the majority of respondents believe that riding electric scooters is dangerous for those around them (71 percent, among Perm residents: 70). In their opinion, the main danger factor is ignorance and violation of traffic rules by electric scooter drivers (21 percent).
“People who ride electric scooters drive at breakneck speeds and often ignore traffic rules, which can lead to a collision with a pedestrian or a road emergency,” said one survey participant.
The top three factors also included the risk of hitting pedestrians (20 percent), high speed of travel and driving on sidewalks and pedestrian areas, and lack of roads (17 percent in both cases).
“First of all, we must introduce permits for scooters, so that a person who knows the traffic rules can get behind the wheel. There are too many minors on scooters, there are many injuries in the event of a collision, inexperienced people ride. I am against scooters,” another survey participant emphasized.
Thus, the majority of respondents noted that movement on electric scooters on roads, sidewalks and pedestrian zones should be limited (73-75 percent, among Perm residents – 69-75 percent).
Recall that members of the Committee on Spatial Development and Improvement of the Perm City Duma approved a project to amend the city’s improvement standards regarding the placement of personal mobility equipment. They recommended considering it at a plenary session of the City Duma on March 26.
Thus, it is planned to complement the landscape regulations with a section that stipulates that personal mobility devices in public areas must be located exclusively in bicycle parking areas. There are no parking spaces for them in the Perm central planning area. It is also planned to regulate the removal or circulation of abandoned electric scooters outside specially designated places.
