Germany has authorized Friday the arrival in the cities scooters electric, imitating most of his neighbours, after a debate which revives the battle between pedestrians, motorists and cyclists to share the streets. “Rarely is a new technology had brought about such enthusiasm and such a rejection”, explained last Monday Achim Berg, chairman of the federation Bitkom of companies digital.
The upper house of Parliament adopted Friday a decree to be presented in early April by the minister of Transport, the curator Andreas Scheuer, to integrate the Code of the road “vehicles to electric propulsion without a” headquarters”, as the Segway had been 10 years ago. This passage in front of the representatives of the 16 States-regions has forced the department to reconsider its initial copy, which is criticized both by the local elected officials by police unions or federations of insurers.
” READ ALSO – The market of the scooter electric is not cost-effective, according to a study
The rules adopted limits scooters electric, some of which can reach 20 km/h, the cycle paths and the road and no one under the age of 14, waiting for any clarification on the wearing of the helmet or the insurance obligation. The example of paris, among others, has been the scarecrow to the idea of see scooters, electric slalom between the pedestrians. In the French capital, the operators of rental scooters electric signed on Monday a “charter of good conduct” with the mairie de Paris. The latter has threatened to provisionally prohibit their use “if self-regulation fails”.
A market that promises to be juicy
For months, the first european economy, with its flat geography and very urbanized and its network of bike lanes, was seen as a potential land of Plenty for the dozen of specialised service providers.
The start-up berlin-based Tier or the Swedish Voi have established contacts with the local authorities and managers of urban transport to put in place their bids, hoping to take a speed the american Lime and Bird, the leaders of this sector in full boiling. “It will be a dog race. The one who can convince the people in the first raflera the market”, explains in the daily Die Welt, Hans Preissl, elected representative in charge of Transport at Bad Homburg, in the chic suburb of Frankfurt (centre).
In ambush, car manufacturers now turned into “mobility providers” have developed their prototypes and Volkswagen plans to combine hers with its offer of car sharing by the end of the year. Will refine the economic model of this market, for the time being in full swing, but not cost-effective, and promised to a consolidation, recalled Friday, a study by the Boston Consulting Group.
Sharing the urban space
the arrival of The scooters has also revived the German battle for the sharing of urban space, pushing the cycling associations to call for a widening of the tracks. Andreas Scheuer has certainly made these devices the key to “mobility, modern, healthy, and environmentally friendly,” while the transport sector is the only one that fails since 1990 to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases in Germany.
But the coexistence of bikes and scooters in a small space could quickly become untenable, observed the weekly Der Spiegel, “while imposing cars with half-empty will continue to occupy large tracks”, a familiar scene as Germany has taken a liking to the 4×4 urban. “Conflict is inevitable,” acknowledged Thursday the social democrat Anke Rehlinger, president of the conference of regional ministers of Transportation estimated that it would take an effort “constant” to define new rules.
For the newspaper Märkische Oderzeitung, “there is in the bottom two possibilities: either the country allows it to install “the chaos and the war between users”, it “withdraws from the place of motorists to promote less polluting modes.
