Electric scooters in St. Petersburg: will they be banned or not?

With the opening of the new season of kick-sharing, that is, rental of scooters, or, as official documents call them, personal mobility devices (IM), residents of the Northern capital began to massively complain about injuries caused by electric scooters. Moreover, pedestrians most often suffer, as scooters run over their feet or even knock them down. Prohibition signs in the city center began to appear after scooters were included in the traffic rules (SDA) back in March 2023, but the situation on the city streets has hardly changed.

Will it be possible to completely ban electric scooters — or at least strengthen control measures over them, RosBalt found out.

In 2024, the number of electric scooters on the streets of the city on the Neva increased to 48 thousand. Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Alexander Belsky announced this in his Telegram channel. Compared to last year, there were 10 thousand more small mobility devices. «We hope that the level of security will improve this year. We will follow this and monitor the situation,» Belsky concluded.

In St. Petersburg, activists are creating an initiative group that will promote a decision to completely ban the use of electric scooters in the city. This was reported by the Central District for a Comfortable Living Environment movement.

Those who disagree will also be heard. There are quite a lot of people who do not support the ban. That is why a referendum will be the best way out of the situation, activists say. «We initiate a referendum and invite people to vote. Everything will be decided in a fair fight: if someone is against the ban, then let them come to the referendum and vote,» Kostrov noted.