Electric scooters will be able to re-enter public transport, although it is not yet clear when or how. The July electoral scenario may lead the members of the board of directors of the Autoritat del Transport Metropolità (ATM) to extend the current six-month ban beyond August 1 and leave the controversial decision for after the summer.
In any case, it will be a political decision, since the technicians this time have applied themselves and are doing their job. On the table of those responsible for the ATM there are various reports that analyze what is being done internationally to regulate personal mobility vehicles and the effects on health that smoke from a burning scooter can have, the reason that led to promote its prohibition after the spectacular fire in a railway train at the height of Sant Boi last November.
The most likely measure right now is that the total ban be lifted and a controlled return bet, with restricted access at rush hour and always in a limited space inside the carriages or buses. These are limitations that would be similar to those that bicycles now have on the subway and that have more to do with the comfort of the rest of the passengers during times of greater crowding than with the risk of fire from the scooters themselves.
Be that as it may, the decision taken here is being watched with a magnifying glass by other cities such as Hamburg. For this reason, at the congress of the International Union of Public Transport (UITP) that is being held these days in Barcelona, the director of the ATM's mobility area, Lluís Alegre, asked yesterday that "the UITP and the European Metropolitan Transport Authorities ( EMTA) promote a regulation and a code of good practice for the whole of Europe”.
A global order would make things easier and unify criteria, but at the moment it is neither here nor expected. The only framework that gives certain guarantees at the moment is the DGT regulations on scooters. Those that do not meet certain technical specifications will not be approved and will be prohibited from circulation as of 2027 and their sale from January 1, 2024, although the ATM trusts that the issue will be resolved before that date.
