Driving electric mobility scooters is becoming more and more popular in urban areas. It is not only a practical choice due to speed and economy, but also a way to avoid city congestion and parking problems. However, drivers of romobiles do not have uniform rules or safety standards.
Although they are practical for avoiding crowds, electric scooters are increasingly accompanied by a growing number of incidents, all in the complete absence of national legal frameworks. Users of electric scooters, pedestrians and drivers of motor vehicles often find themselves in risky situations, and the police do not yet have clear powers to sanction negligent behavior.
“Irresponsible individuals damage the ecologically acceptable image of our society and put themselves in danger first of all, and secondly, they endanger other road users. Currently in our country, there is no legal regulation that regulates these two-wheelers, which are quite different from bicycles in terms of mechanical construction. Their wheel radii are much smaller, they are more unstable. It would be simplest to define a moped as a means of transport and put its definition in Article 9 of the Law on Basic Safety traffic on the roads and that the regulation of the movement of mobile vehicles in one of the articles of that law should be identified with the movement of bicycles”, says Mirzet Sarajlić, traffic safety engineer.
The proposed amendment to the state law was presented
After a long wait, a proposal for amendments to the State Law on the Basics of Road Traffic Safety was presented. The goal is to define the status of romobile drivers through system solutions and introduce clear obligations.
“It contains all the technical and safety conditions. The initiative of a colleague from the SDA was also fine, who asked the question of what to do with children under 14 who drive, whether it is foreseen, who is sanctioned, in what way, and for this reason we also supplemented that segment in this law, in which we really took care of everything, to introduce the mandatory wearing of a helmet, wearing a vest at night, banning the wearing of headphones in both ears, illegal parking, closing passages and so on.” explains Rejhana Dervišević, representative in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Among other things, the proposal states that the minimum age for driving a scooter is 14 years. Mandatory wearing of a protective helmet, mandatory use of lights and reflective vests at night, prohibition of movement on highways, and a speed limit of up to 25 kilometers per hour are prescribed.
Citizens demand more order and protection
Citizens also believe that this type of regulation is very necessary.
“They don’t bother me, as long as they behave properly. For example, there are elderly people who drive on the bicycle path and then they don’t hear, it happens that they get knocked down and so on,” says one interviewee in Sarajevo.
“It should be directed to the street, not to the sidewalks. It shouldn’t even be driven by minors,” said another interlocutor.
The third warns of serious risks:
“Firstly, the protective equipment, no one wears it. Second, they drive in the middle of the road, even on the main road. I’ve seen on more than one occasion when a romobile went from lane to lane and went directly into a vehicle and where it could have ended with fatal consequences.”
Until the adoption of the law, security remains on the user’s conscience
The proposal is currently awaiting consideration in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, and until the adoption of the law and the adoption of the rulebook on technical conditions, security remains on the conscience of the users themselves, which, judging by the situation on the ground, is a risk that can no longer be ignored, he writes. N1 BiH.
