The City of Milan has asked companies offering shared electric micromobility services — such as scooters and Segways — to suspend operations while awaiting the new regulations.
Milan is putting the brakes on the enthusiasm sparked by the new regulations on micromobility vehicles such as scooters and Segways. The City has temporarily blocked the companies that have launched sharing services covering vehicles including hoverboards, skateboards and monowheel scooters.
For the rental of the new electric micromobility transport vehicles, the City of Milan warns, further regulation is needed to define the services and characteristics that operators must comply with.
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"Our priority is to guarantee road safety for citizens," explain Milan's deputy mayor Anna Scavuzzo and councillor for Mobility Marco Granelli. "Electric micromobility is an interesting resource for cities, but scooters, Segways, hoverboards, skateboards and monowheel scooters are not toys and must be regulated. Milan is taking part in the trial with interest, but also with caution. The notice through which companies will also be able to apply for authorisation to position shared vehicles across the city of Milan will be ready soon: authorisations that to date have either never been requested or have already been refused, given that the Decree is not yet in force."
The city council began trialling electric micromobility in July 2019, including hoverboards, skateboards and monowheel scooters. Among the rules established is a restriction to use in pedestrian areas only, at a maximum speed of six kilometres per hour.
The ministerial decree that regulated the trial at national level for two years also provides for the possibility of using these vehicles on cycle lanes, cycle-pedestrian paths and Zone 30 roads at speeds of up to twenty kilometres per hour. However, the City of Milan still needs to erect the approximately two hundred road signs indicating this possibility, without which the right to travel using, for example, scooters or Segways is not yet active.
Users will need to pay attention to a number of rules for the correct use of electric micromobility vehicles; to this end, an appeal has come from the deputy mayor and the councillor for the Environment: "We also wish to urge everyone who uses and will use scooters to park them with care. This too is a safety issue, as they must not obstruct the passage of pedestrians, particularly those with mobility difficulties or those pushing wheelchairs and pushchairs. The road is a shared space."
Milan's city council therefore intends to call a meeting with current and future operators of electric micromobility sharing services, with the aim of agreeing the rules of engagement within the trial period called for by the Ministry of Transport.
