The City of Helsinki is cooperating with e-scooter rental companies to reduce the problems and inconveniences caused by the equipment.
The stubborn ice of winter is gradually disappearing, meaning the city’s sidewalks and streets will soon be filled again with e-scooters for rent.
The devices have been causing friction since they started appearing in the city a few years ago.
Due to safety reasons often related to intoxicated users, the top speeds of the scooters were reduced last year in Helsinki as the city negotiated with the electric scooter rental companies Voi Technology, TIER Mobility and Lime.
Operators agreed to lower the maximum speeds of the equipment from 25 kilometers per hour to 20 kilometers per hour and to limit their speeds to 15 kilometers per hour from midnight to 5 a.m. around the city. E-scooters were also removed on weekend evenings.
Now that companies are preparing to introduce battery-powered vehicles during the warm seasons, there are a number of new rules coming in, one of which could result in extra charges for drivers if they don’t park properly.
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Country Directors of TIER Mobility and Voi Technology, Elina Bürkland and Reetta Alastaloand the City of Helsinki’s Transport System Manager Heikki Palomäki discussed changes with Yle.
1. Downtown parking spaces
The often chaotic way e-scooter users parked vehicles caused problems last year. There were up to 8,000 e-scooters for rent in the capital.
Operators and the city have decided to provide dozens of parking spaces for the equipment in the downtown area. According to Voi’s Alastalo, they focus on places where tenants often end their trips, including public transport stops.
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All car parks have signs, some of which are painted with street markings, while some have racks for e-scooters.
Tenants can still exclude scooters from marked areas, but operators will reward the use of parking spaces during the free rental period.
2. Required parking photos
In the future, e-scooter renters will need to take a picture of how they park their equipment before they can end their trip.
"The entire e-scooter must be visible in the image. Then we can assess whether it is well parked or not," Türin Bürkland explained, pointing out that photographs are mandatory no matter where they are parked.
If the renter fails to send a snapshot of their parking job, the e-scooter meter will continue to operate and the user will still be charged.
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Operators track parking images using artificial intelligence technology as well as real people.
If the scooters are found to be poorly parked, a message will be sent to Renters reminding them how to park properly. Users will be charged an additional fee if the parking rules are violated again.
"For another bad parking disruption, we charge a fee of five euros," Voi’s Alastalo said and added that the company is reviewing the effectiveness of the fee and plans to increase it if necessary.
3. Parking patrols
E-scooter parking is monitored by employees at Just Arrived, a Swedish employment agency that helps newly arrived foreigners – or others who have difficulty finding work – get a job.
"We started a similar collaboration [with Just Arrived] last year in several cities across Sweden," Bürkland said.
Monitors patrol the city streets and clean up poorly placed electric scooters. The service is paid for by rental companies, which are also responsible for maintaining the car park.
The search for Just Arrived’s parking control candidates was still running from Friday.
4. Speed Limits
Lower speed limits will continue this year after they were introduced in the fall of 2021.
The decision to lower top speeds was based on increased accidents and injuries to riders last summer. This was more common on weekend evenings when alcohol was often a factor.
Aalto University conducts research on the use of electric scooters in cooperation with the City of Helsinki, tenants and the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The city’s traffic manager, Palomäki, said the investigation aims to obtain information on, among other things, electric scooter accidents. The widespread use of passenger cars is still so new that the subject needs to be looked at, he added.
He stated that Helsinki’s goal is not to get rid of electric scooters for rent and that it considers micro-mobility to be an important part of the city’s transport systems.
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5. Alcohol control considerations
A road safety report released by the Ministry of Transport this week proposes that legal limits be placed on the blood alcohol content of light vehicles, measures that would affect e-scooter drivers and cyclists.
Rental companies support such measures.
TIER’s Bürkland said the blood alcohol limits for e-scooters would tell riders they should not drive intoxicated regardless of the mode of transport.
"We definitely support the idea. But we also know that creating such laws takes time. That’s why we want to offer alternative security-enhancing solutions now," Oh’s Alastalo said.
Source: The Nordic Page