Today, the representatives of state and municipal authorities will meet with electric scooter rental companies to discuss road safety for the upcoming season. The meeting focuses on lowering speed limits and organising convenient and safe parking for personal light electric vehicles.

For Tallinn, the main concerns relate to the excessive speed of electric vehicles and parking in the middle of the sidewalk, which creates traffic hazards and hinders pedestrian movement. For this reason, Tallinn supports an amendment of the Traffic Act that would also give local authorities the possibility to impose their own rules (e.g. on speed limits, parking, etc.) on electric scooter rental companies.

Tanel Kiik, deputy mayor of Tallinn, who is in charge of transport, said that it is important for the city to ensure the safety of pedestrians, electric scooter users and all other road users. “When managing traffic, we must always seek a balance between speed and safety,” he said. “The current legal speed limit for a personal light electric vehicle is 25 kilometres per hour, which is almost five times greater than the walking speed of an average pedestrian. At the same time, the number of electric scooter users and related accidents is clearly on the rise, according to police figures. As a result, we are proposing to lower the speed limit to 20 kilometres per hour, and even lower in the Old Town and in more congested areas.”

Deputy Mayor Vladimir Svet also acknowledges that the development of scooter services must not be at the expense of pedestrians. “Scooters parked carelessly on sidewalks are a particular concern for people with reduced mobility, the elderly and parents with pushchairs,” said Svet. “The solution would be to ban scooter parking on streets with narrower sidewalks. In certain areas, electric scooters should only be allowed to be parked in specific locations, which will be indicated to the user in the app. This would avoid parking and creating obstacles for pedestrians at junctions, bus stops and other vital locations.”

At today's wide-ranging meeting with scooter rental companies in the capital, representatives of the Tallinn City Government, the Transport Department, the Municipal Police Department, Tallinn Urban Environment and Public Works Department, the Transport Administration and the Police and Border Guard Department will be participating.