Oslo City Council admits there is an electric scooter chaos in Oslo and the police asks politicians to intervene.
This year, the city allowed dockless electric scooters to begin operating in the city. In a short time, 6 different companies have started to offer shared electric scooter service. The result of this experiment in lax regulations was what the city council recently declared to be “chaos.”
From May to June, the number of injured persons due to electric scooters was doubled in Oslo.
In the last three months, a total of 187 people have been injured, according to NTB.
As a result of several accidents, a number of European cities have introduced either total ban or stricter restrictions.
The police in Oslo closely monitor developments and see the chaos due to unregulated use of electric scooters.
In April last year, the government has classified the electric scooters as regular bicycle.
Thus, there is no separate regulation for scooters. This decision was criticized by Trygg Trafikk, according to NRK.
Trygg Trafikk believes there was little focus on the security aspect, and too much focus on “simpler rules, less bureaucracy and a little more fun in everyday life”, as the government described in a press release.
The police and Trygg Trafikk believe that it is now up to the politicians to initiate stricter measures to solve the problem.
They want stricter rules for electric scooter including mandatory helmet, age limit, and clearer rules for where and when the electric scooters are used.
NRK contacted the City Council for Environment and Transport in Oslo, to hear what the municipality could do about the problem.
They replied that it is not possible for Oslo or other municipalities to set their own driving requirements for scooters as they government recognize them as bicycle.
“Right now we have an electric scooter chaos, and a law introduced by the government prevents the municipalities to regulate this properly,” says the Vice Mayor for Environment and Transport in Oslo, Arild Hermstad to NRK.
