The Department of Mobility of the Santa Cruz City Council will explore the possibility of implementing a tool that enables citizens to report instances of electric scooters being parked incorrectly on city streets, along with on-site photos. This comes in response to a request from seven neighbourhood associations in the Centro district, urging the council to take action concerning the 1,292 personal mobility vehicles (PMVs) in operation in the city. These vehicles, they claim, “are causing worry among residents of the neighbourhoods due to the safety and inconvenience issues they bring about”.
Evelyn Alonso, the person in charge of the department, stated to DIARIO DE AVISOS that “we will assess this option through the SC Mejora APP, allowing the rental service companies to be promptly informed and able to remove abandoned scooters from the streets, a task no longer under the jurisdiction of municipal police”.
Recent discussions held between representatives from Centro Residencial Anaga, La Muralla, El Perenquén, Ninfa-Ifara, Toscal Tribulaciones, Rambla Pulido, and La Arboleda with the City Council focused on the need for additional measures to enhance road safety and peaceful coexistence between scooter users and pedestrians, as per reports from the newspaper.
Residents’ complaints highlighted the issue of scooters being left on pavements, but “according to data from service providers in the city, 93% of users handle them appropriately. The remaining 7% accounts for breakdowns of VMPs or users exhausting credits and abandoning the scooters,” mentioned Alonso.
Alonso shared, “We are exploring various technical solutions to enhance the geolocation of these vehicles for better retrieval. This, however, applies solely to rental vehicles, as private scooters are beyond our purview, regulated by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT). Unfortunately, little has been done in this regard.”
The associations also advocated for restricting VMP usage to individuals aged 16 and above, along with other measures not presently under their control, stated the councillor. Subsequently, Alonso has written to the DGT director, Pere Navarro, seeking “clear regulations to minimise urban road accidents in light of evolving mobility patterns in our cities”.
She emphasised the necessity of helmets for cyclists and scooter users, mandatory civil liability insurance, an identification code for sanctions by the police in case of infractions, specifying a minimum user age, wearing reflective gear, and providing basic training (both theoretical and practical) for drivers. Nonetheless, the councillor reiterated that scooters are to operate on roads or designated cycle lanes, as stipulated in the municipal regulations.
