They are quiet, nimble and are actually called small electric vehicles. After some confusion at the start, e-scooters have also established themselves in Germany. Not all sensitive questions are defused.
Berlin (dpa) - For some they stand for modern mobility, others warn of chaos and the risk of accidents: electric scooters have been on the German road for a year now.
For the first anniversary, the little companions have mainly developed into a big city phenomenon - they have not yet triggered a major change in traffic. Security is still an acute issue. The cities are calling for further regulations. A helmet requirement and a remedy for unsteady turns remain in the discussion.
The municipalities are primarily concerned with additional options for protecting pedestrians. "For particularly heavily frequented places such as in front of historical sights and in places with many people, the performance of the scooters must be limited to walking pace," said the managing director of the German Association of Cities, Helmut Dedy, the German Press Agency. Older people and children should be able to move around there without fear. By the way, without speed reduction, e-scooters would not have lost anything in pedestrian zones.
In addition, a new traffic sign "Small electric vehicles are forbidden", so that city authorities can clearly exclude use in sensitive areas. "Today, e-scooters can only be dispensed with voluntarily around the Munich Oktoberfest," explained Dedy. The federal government should therefore use a new amendment to the traffic regulations announced at the end of the year to enable these additional measures for e-scooters.
This Monday it was a year ago that so-called e-scooters were approved for road traffic. A regulation that has been in force since June 15, 2019 specifies technical requirements and rules of conduct. The companions can travel between 6 and 20 kilometers per hour. You have to drive on bike paths - there are none on the road. Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) campaigned for a "real additional alternative to the car" for the "last mile" from home to the train station or from the bus to the office.
"A year ago there was a lot of hype about e-scooters. A lot of people wanted to try them out," said Dedy. The start was also "somewhat chaotic", you had to clarify rules with loan providers. Because disorganized parking of the scooters somewhere on the roadside, on sidewalks or squares initially caused "frustration and annoyance". It was often possible to clear that up.
The Tüv Association also sees a need to catch up when it comes to security, even if everyone has now had a "steep learning curve": users, distributors, police, authorities. E-scooters have established themselves as an additional option in many cities, said Managing Director Joachim Bühler. But there are always accidents, sometimes with serious injuries. The association therefore advocates a helmet requirement - officially, helmets are recommended. It would also make sense to make a brake light on the back and turn signals mandatory. One-handed driving to indicate changes in direction of travel is not practical, since most e-scooters easily got stuck.
The ministry plans to present a first interim balance sheet on road safety by the end of the year. The role that companions can play in mobility must be shown. "They are broadening the traffic mix in cities," said Dedy. They would not be the focus of the necessary turnaround towards less emissions and noise. "But they can also contribute a little." From the perspective of the Tüv Association, the e-scooters are a useful addition to cars, bicycles, buses and trains. However, the new means of transportation had not yet been able to meet the high expectations as part of the mobility transition.
An overview of the fleet alone is difficult. In the meantime, the Federal Motor Transport Authority has issued 96 general operating permits for e-scooter models. Despite the compulsory insurance, there is no official information on the number of individual copies. Rental scooters are available in several cities. The provider Lime claims to rent a total of 25,000 scooters in twelve German cities. Voi is also present in twelve cities and reports a slowly increasing acceptance. Rival Tier is active in 38 cities and experiences the greatest demand on weekdays in the morning, during lunch breaks and at the end of the day. Bird serves 16 cities.
The Corona weeks with their limitations were not a good time for the loan providers. Lime and Voi, for example, paused their service around mid-March. Tier-Roller continued to exist, but the company reported a sharp drop in sales. The bicycle club ADFC stated: "Corona has changed the picture: the e-scooters are significantly decimated, but there are significantly more cyclists." There are still too few good bike paths.
Since last year, the vehicles with the official name "Small Electric Vehicles" have also had a federal association. He demands that e-scooters be equated with bicycles - for them a separate green arrow is set up at traffic lights, which also allows you to turn right when red. It is a "Schildbürgerstreich" that this does not apply to e-scooters, said vice association board member Ramòn Goeden.
Questions and answers from the Federal Ministry of Transport about e-scooters
