The exact number of electric scooters that circulate in Santa Cruz on a rental basis is unknown, but with a simple look at the applications used by the four companies that currently offer this service in the capital, it can be seen that the majority exceed one hundred of vehicles, some even have more than 200. It is a service whose operation has aroused unanimous criticism from the residents of the capital due to the lack of awareness of users and companies, by leaving these personal mobility vehicles parked anywhere , hindering the transit of pedestrians, many of them with mobility problems, which have been multiplied. To put an end to this situation, as a result of the existing legal vacuum in the regulation of this type of transport, Mayor José Manuel Bermúdez announced yesterday that this benefit will be put out to public tender, so that only the scooter rental service can be provided electricity through a concession and it will be a single company that is awarded the same.
“There is a legal vacuum that prevents us from direct control of these companies, since they work like any car rental business,” said Bermúdez. Despite this, “we are going to regulate the sector, first through the mobility ordinance, which will establish the uses of this type of vehicle, and then with the granting of a license, which will establish the bases for the The company that is the winner of the contest provides the service in the city ”. However, the truth is that it will not be until next year that this regularization can be carried out.
While that comes, the mayor assured, “we will continue the sanction route, imposing fines and removing the skateboards when they are parked in areas that are not authorized for it.” And he launched a message addressed to the companies that currently operate in the city, “those that are taking advantage of the legal vacuum to act badly, let them know that they have little time left to enjoy this situation.”
The Councilor for Security and Mobility, Evelyn Alonso, confirmed that the Local Police are carrying out the removal of scooters that are badly parked in the city, as well as that parking spaces for these VMPs will be enabled, “so that they do not say that they don’t have spaces to park ”. Alonso also recalled that the penalties for parking in a pedestrian area or circulating through it, reach 200 euros.
These data were offered by the City Council in the presentation of the media campaign for universal accessibility, which seeks that the population does not perform certain behaviors that make it impossible to develop the autonomy of people with some type of disability on public roads and that It will have a regional character, since it is understood that “not only do the residents of this municipality pass through Santa Cruz, but, as the capital and administrative city, people come from all over the Island,” the mayor recalled.
As the Councilor for Accessibility, Javier Rivero, recognized yesterday, the high competitiveness among companies to attract customers is causing the spaces and places where scooters appear to multiply, with the sole purpose of reaching the potential user sooner. Companies do not have any obligation to notify the City Council of their installation in the city and they limit themselves to collecting general rules of use in their applications, with which they place all responsibility on their clients. At this time, officially, the Consistory does not know the number of companies and scooters distributed throughout the city, due to the legal limbo in which the capital is located. Other cities, such as Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, have chosen to create a public company in charge of providing the service. In Madrid, the option is to grant licenses to different companies, but with a limited number of scooters for each one.
