Companies engaged in the rental of electric scooters opposed the proposal of the Investigative Committee, which called for all users of personal mobility equipment (SIM) to be equated with "drivers", as well as to create an M1 subcategory for SIM and issue driver's licenses for driving them. Opinions on this matter are divided among experts, and in the interpretation of statistics on the number of accidents with electric scooters. For more information, see the Izvestia article.
What is the essence of the proposal
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that the Investigative Committee proposes to clarify the term "vehicle" "with an indication of its purpose, including for individual movement on roads." It is proposed to consider those who ride electric scooters and other SIM cards as drivers.
The categories of vehicles will be supplemented with the subcategory "M1" — it will include a SIM with an electric motor with a capacity of up to 0.25 kW. In the "M" (mopeds) and "A" (motorcycles) categories, SIM cards with electric motors starting from 0.25 will be included.
All "drivers" of electric scooters will need to obtain the right to drive vehicles of the "M1" subcategory, but only after reaching the age of 16.
The speaker of the State Duma also published statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to which 3,897 accidents with various SIM were registered in nine months, which is 47.2% more than in the same period of 2023. 44 people died in them, including six minors. Another 4,052 people were injured, including 1,392 children. He added that more than 34% of accidents were recorded on sidewalks and in pedestrian zones.
How did the market react
Izvestia has sent a request to the largest Russian electric scooter rental services. At the time of publication, MTS Yuret voiced its position, in which they called the idea "redundant", emphasizing that it "will not in any way affect the reduction of accidents."
The company recalled that in Russia there is already a division into low-power SIM cards with a speed limit of up to 25 km/h. These include all rental vehicles for individual mobility. All other electric vehicles fall under the category of "mopeds", and you already need a license to ride them.
MTS Yuret points out that only about 0.001% of trips on rented SIM ended in accidents, while the total accident rate in the country over the same period was almost 100 thousand accidents. That is, many more accidents occurred "precisely with the participation of motor vehicles for which rights are needed," therefore, "the introduction of the need to obtain rights to drive a SIM will not change anything," the company concludes.
Evgeny Vzhesnevsky, chairman of the Moscow branch of the NGO for the development of culture and safety of the non-profit small electric transport "KoleSIM", also compares the statistics of accidents involving SIM with figures on car accidents. 236 times more people died in car accidents and 36 times more people were injured, he said.
— These figures show that the problem of accidents involving SIM is more emotional than real. And the increase in the number of accidents is associated with the growth of the rental SIM fleet," the source told Izvestia.
At the same time, such initiatives will definitely "kill the logic of using such transport," MTS Yuret says: now scooters, both rental and private, are popular precisely because of their ease of use and accessibility. The demand for "transport" trips of up to 15 minutes is growing annually, a scooter or bicycle is taken to get from home to a public transport stop, from the subway to the office — the share of such trips at MTS Yuret amounted to more than 90% in 2024.
Ksenia Erdman, head of the Association of Micromobility Operators, noted that, on the contrary, the world is moving towards stimulating the development of individual transport and micromobility, whereas Russian cities are characterized by car-centricity. At the same time, the urban environment in Russia is not adapted at all for micromobile transport, she said, expressing the hope that one day initiatives will focus specifically on infrastructure development, rather than prohibitions or restrictions. She acknowledged that the current regulation is not enough, it is necessary to develop and typify the means of micromobility, but it is impossible to equate electric scooters with the same mopeds. She called the TFR's initiative redundant.
"It's still a half measure"
Independent experts are divided on this issue.
Alexey Smirnov, the founder of InnovaTransport, an expert in transport consulting, notes that the idea of introducing driver's licenses for scooters is not new — similar standards already exist in Israel and South Korea.
"Considering how many different measures have already been introduced to prevent and deter traffic violations by users of micromobile vehicles, it seems that the time has come to move on," he told Izvestia. — The proposed measures can be called harsh, but this is probably the only way to achieve a real effect.
Alexey Smirnov believes that learning to drive a scooter should be more accessible and simpler than the procedure for obtaining a driver's license of other categories. It would be enough to allocate one or two days for a theoretical training course, but for basic skills training it will be necessary to allocate a site — perhaps a special site in the city, he believes.
Evgeny Vzhesnevsky believes that a simple online test on the Gosuslug portal would be enough to obtain a new category of rights, if it were introduced.
Maxim Kadakov, the editor-in-chief of Za Rulem, was generally positive about the TFR's proposal, but called it a half-measure.
— Let's either leave off electric scooters and let everything go as it goes; or we will introduce moped rights for everyone; or we will ban electric scooters altogether. There should be very clear, understandable rules," he told Izvestia. — Unfortunately, in our reality it's still a half-measure.
He noted that many motorcycles are still sold as mopeds, which makes it impossible to obtain category "A" rights to drive them. The same situation will develop in the situation with scooters, the expert is sure.
— Not a single person has studied at school for a moped license, this is absurd. No one will spend money on it, get into the Traffic police, take theory and practice. If they study, they get either a motorcycle, a car, or both," Maxim Kadakov said.
Igor Morzharetto, a member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, believes that the topic of accidents with scooters is "somewhat overblown," and the proposal to issue licenses may bring down the driver's license training system, since "we are talking about millions of people and a practice that does not exist anywhere else in the world." He fears that the examination and registration system will be overloaded, and it is unclear how to check people on scooters. Morgiaretto believes that it would be enough to divide scooters in the traffic regulations by power: if the engine power is no more than 250 watts, then it is enough to introduce two hours of schooling.
Anton Shaparin, Vice-President of the National Automobile Union (NAS), notes that the issue of equating scooters with vehicles is generally a matter for the EAEU, which is adopting amendments to the relevant technical regulations 018/2011.
— There is also GOST R 70514-2022 "Electric means of individual mobility". But in order for it to work, it is necessary to introduce mandatory certification of such devices, on the basis of which their compliance with this GOST will be checked," the expert said. — Before entering any categorization of these products, a procedure is needed to assess their compliance: SIM engines, their power, weight, and maximum speed. And only then can we say that this is a vehicle that requires a driver's license of the appropriate category. But Rosstandart has been slow for years to develop legislation on the certification of such personal electric vehicles.
What are the alternatives to solve the problem?
Ksenia Erdman notes that the deputies also made a proposal to introduce mandatory training for SIM users. However, the applications before starting trips and now "persistently and hopelessly" offer a person to undergo an instruction that allows them to understand the rules of driving an electric scooter. After that, the new user takes the test — without it, the person cannot start the trip.
— In addition, the operators have different programs with schools, universities and colleges, where they also teach this, — said the interlocutor of Izvestia. — Operators conduct a "Driving school" in Russian cities every season, where you can take both theoretical and practical classes on electric scooters.
Alexey Smirnov believes that in this regard, it is operators who need to be offered to adapt the already developed methods to a training format that would give access to the management of individual mobility facilities.
MTS Yuret also believes that it is necessary to deal with violators through working with users: training them in traffic regulations, identification, in order to track, among other things, the age of a person getting on a scooter. Evgeny Vzhesnevsky also notes that more than 25% of accidents were committed with the participation of minors operating the SIM, so you should enter more than just account verification on mos.ru as it is done in Moscow, and verification by facial biometrics to avoid the use of fake accounts.
However, it is even more important to create an infrastructure for SIM, experts say.
— Specialists of "STEP. Transport solutions"found out that the probability of accidents on streets without bicycle infrastructure is 40% higher: 0.24 accidents per 1 km of street per year versus 0.36 accidents," he notes.
But Wrzesniewski calls the requirement to maintain a speed limit of 25 km/h for SIM weighing more than 35 kg excessive, since this restriction only causes a large difference in speeds between road users, which puts users of personal electric vehicles in a vulnerable position.
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