The contest between electric scooter companies to operate with their fleets in Madrid already has its winners. Lime, Dott and Tier have been the companies chosen by the Madrid City Council to distribute the 6,000 scooters set to circulate around the city among their fleets. Some vehicles that will circulate, starting in May, through the streets of the capital with new systems to avoid driving on the sidewalk and restore illegal parking in unauthorized areas.
This is how the delegate for the Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, presented it in front of one of the new parking lots for bicycles and scooters on Calle de Alcalá. The technological innovations, authorizations imposed in the operations for the lease of the new scooters, will make it possible to correct the main problems that are currently generated in Madrid: illegal parking in pedestrian areas and circulation through unauthorized areas.
Carabante has highlighted that the new electric scooters are the commitment of the municipal government to implement a “more orderly, safe and integrated” shared micromobility model in the different mobility platforms.
More orderly because “the parking area for scooters is limited” Madrid Mobility 360, explained the councilor.
technological innovations
The innovations that these companies incorporate in the scooters make the vehicles stop when driving through pedestrian areas, through GPS technology, and prohibit parking them in areas not designated for it in the Centro district, by means of a beep and a fine.
In the rest of the city, it will be possible to park outside the reserves as long as there is no space for motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles and VMP less than 50 meters from the parking point.
Thus, all the winning companies have committed to removing incorrectly parked vehicles within 1 hour of their detection, as well as to include a parking record through apps in which users include a photograph and the location to which they are located. leave him.
Another of the companies’ commitments is to give practical courses on safe circulation on scooters throughout the duration of the authorization and launch an Action Plan to make users aware of the regulations and basic criteria for safe circulation on scooters. electric scooter.
The new vehicles have a DGT Zero label and have lights, bells and reflective elements approved in accordance with current regulations. In addition, each scooter has a system that allows its identification to be able to integrate into a multimodal platform, including Madrid Mobility 360.
Fewer companies and fewer authorizations
At the moment, six different companies offer their electric scooters in Madrid. As of May there will be only three -Lime, Dott and Tier-, since the City Council considers that “excessive fragmentation of companies” represents “a brake” for the effective implementation of scooters, thus approaching the model of cities like Paris and London.
In addition, the new regulations from May contemplate a reduction in the number of scooters by 40%, going from 10,000 to 6,000, with the aim of “favoring the integration of all modes of transport” and “rationalizing the use of the road publish”.
In this, there are 4,821 vehicles that are currently deployed, so the limitation of direction in the authorizations will not mean a reduction in the number of operational scooters.
However, the City Council has stressed that it is open to increasing the number of authorizations based on demand and “the actual use of the scooters”, which will be evaluated every four months through a scorecard of the companies to which it will have Access to the Town Hall.
Carabante has explained that the limitation of the authorizable responds to “reasons of general interest”, such as “guaranteeing road safety” and “the protection of the users of these vehicles and of the rest of the citizens”, especially minors, the elderly, people with functional diversity and reduced mobility.
As of May 2, companies will have five business days to deploy at least 50% of their scooters, so on May 9 there must be at least 3,000 scooters deployed in the city.
