Plug in the SIM: violators on electric scooters will face serious fines
Already this season, users of personal mobility equipment (SIM) can receive serious fines for not following the speed limit or riding an electric scooter together. A new bill developed in the Federation Council increases fines for drunk driving on a SIM card to 30 thousand rubles. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
According to the upper bar
The bill, which significantly increases fines for SIM users, is being prepared for the second reading. Artyom Sheikin, one of the authors of the draft law, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction, Deputy Chairman of the Council for the Development of the Digital Economy at the Federation Council, told about this on April 2 at the Moscow International Monetary Center "Russia Today".
— The adoption of this law will have an impact on reducing the number of violations committed by electric scooters. The fines in the bill have been significantly increased and new trains have been introduced, such as riding an electric scooter together, as well as drunk driving. There will be a lot of changes. We are waiting for the second reading. I hope that this season users will start receiving fines, which should significantly affect the reduction in the number of accidents. Today, fines are at such a minimum that it is easier for people to pay than to follow the rules of the road," said Artyom Sheikin.
In a conversation with a correspondent of Izvestia, he noted that the "fork" of fines had been removed by the second reading and would be punished according to the upper limit. Previously, the bill imposed a fine of 20 to 30 thousand rubles for driving while intoxicated, for violating the speed limit from 500 to 5000 rubles, depending on the speed, and from 2 to 3 thousand rubles for violating the requirements for passenger transportation.
Artyom Sheikin also stated the need to create registries where all electric scooters and electric bicycles would be included.
"It is necessary that each such vehicle has its own identification number, so that it is possible to identify the violator and that the state ensures the inevitability of punishment," he said.
SIM rights and speed limit
According to the senator, increased fines are not the only measure that can affect the emergency situation of the SIM. According to him, earlier the government held a meeting dedicated to SIM, during which they discussed the situation with electric bicycles with a capacity of over 250 watts, the mandatory wearing of a helmet, the prohibition of traveling together and raising the minimum age for using SIM from 14 to 16 years.
— After the meeting, it was instructed to work out the possibility of traveling by SIM along footpaths at a low speed so that in places with large crowds it would not exceed 10 km/h, — said Artem Sheikin.
The initiative of the Investigative Committee, which called for equating all SIM users with drivers, has its pros and cons, the senator believes.
— Having a license ensures that the scooters know the traffic rules. Clearer regulation of the driver's status will simplify bringing to justice, and the approach to scooters as full-fledged road users will be standardized. On the downside, for such large cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg, this measure will affect tourists. This will make access more difficult and infrastructure development more difficult," said Artem Sheikin.
Kicksharing has already increased the fines
The kicksharing operators interviewed by Izvestia support the Federation Council's initiative to tighten liability for traffic violations by SIM drivers. They said that they had significantly raised the fines for their users.
MTS Yuret reported that the fine for drunk driving is 100 thousand rubles, and the transfer of control of the scooter to a child is up to 10 thousand rubles.Riding together will cost 5,000 rubles, taking your time at a pedestrian crossing will cost 1,000 rubles, and improper parking will cost 500 rubles. In 2024, MTS Yuret issued 190,000 fines across Russia and blocked almost 43,000 adult user accounts.
— Additionally, using the MTS ID identification service, we began to identify and block accounts of underage users in our application. In 2024, we blocked more than 10,000 accounts of children, and this season this work will continue, including integration with bank IDs," the press service of the kicksharing operator said.
The Whoosh press service reported that more than 29,000 fines were issued last season and more than 79,000 users were blocked. Most of them paid for parking.
— In Moscow, street cameras monitor order together with us — for example, they detect slowness at pedestrian crossings. If there is a photo confirmation, we issue fines to violators. We note that the majority of those fined do not violate these rules in the future," the Whoosh press service said.
Kicksharing operators emphasize that, according to their statistics, less than 1% of users violate the rules. The vast majority of citizens drive calmly and carefully.
"Our SIM is blamed for all the problems"
The question is not how to accept new fines, but how to administer it all, says Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief of Za Rulem.
— The issue of law enforcement is how to catch them? How to determine the power? It is not forbidden to buy these funds from us. Let's call all this "mopeds", and then a person should have at least some rights. If there is no strict control system, if they are not "harassed", the measures taken will only work when something happens. An electric cyclist hit a man, the culprit was caught, the power of his electric bike was checked, and it turned out that he had no right to ride on the sidewalk. This means that he will be punished in full," the expert believes.
The increase in fines is not the right place to start, says Igor Morzharetto, a member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
— In our country, the SIM is blamed for all the problems, without trying to figure out what a SIM is and deal with injuries. I saw the death toll figures last year: there is an increase compared to 2023, but it has clearly slowed down. Moreover, it turned out that among the dead and injured, the number of pedestrians is scanty, and mostly these are the scooters themselves. Ideally, there can be two options. First: give everyone their own lane, a car a road, a pedestrian a sidewalk— and a bike lane. The second point is that we need to teach people traffic rules right from school," Igor Morzharetto believes.
Last year, the number of deaths in accidents involving electric scooters and other means of individual mobility increased by more than 25%. This was announced by Dmitry Mitroshin, head of the Scientific Center for Road Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, speaking in the Moscow City Duma.
According to him, the number of victims of such accidents increased by 44.5% in 2024 and reached 4,591 people (in 2023 — 3,177 people).
The number of accidents with electric scooters and other SIM cards increased by 42.8% over the year and reached 4426 cases, while in 2023 the number of such accidents amounted to 3.1 thousand.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
