Speed controls slapped on Moscow's rental scooters

Speed controls slapped on Moscow's rental scooters

Authorities in Moscow are imposing speed limits for electric scooters that whizz across the city, often on pavements, as calls for action grow following a string of accidents.

Maha Albadrawi reports.

Muscovites renting electric scooters are about to experience automatic speed controls in the city center, after a string of accidents causes growing concerns about safety.

The city’s electric scooters have been hired over a million times since early April, and their popularity is expected to grow.

This has authorities worried as scooter accidents increase, like the one which put David Zaleyev, a dancer from the Mariinsky Ballet, temporarily in a coma.

Now, when the rented vehicles enter the area, they are programmed to automatically slow to 9 miles per hour.

Magomed Kolgayev, of the Moscow Department of Transport, explains why.

"Due to lack a of regulation on individual mobility devices together with kick sharing operators, we have agreed that we will implement the so-called "slow zones" - these are sections of the street network, where the speed of scooters will be automatically reduced to 15 km per hour.

This is done to avoid accidents that occur on these sections." Kolgayev added that Moscow's fleet of rental scooters is expected to double to 20,000 by the end of the year to meet demand.

And with interest growing, the city's transport department said it could make more areas subject to speed limits.