A man uses an electric scooter of the Lime electric scooter-sharing service in Madrid. Image: GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP
Cities across Spain are grappling with electric scooters that have popped up on sidewalks across the country, helping riders zip around but exasperating drivers and pedestrians.
In Madrid public opinion is divided over the hundreds of electric scooters which California-based start-up Lime 鈥� partly owned by ride-hailing Uber and Google parent company Alphabet 鈥� has made available since mid-August.
Unlike schemes involving shared bicycles that typically must be left in docking stations, the scooters are dockless, leaving riders responsible for parking them out of the way. The next rider can find the nearest scooter with a smartphone app, unlock it and use it for a fee.
Similar electric scooter sharing programs have been introduced in other European cities including Paris, Vienna and Zurich.
In Madrid, Lime鈥檚 scooters, which have already been used over 100,000 times, are tolerated by the left-wing city hall, intent on reducing pollution.
But the scooters are often left in places where they obstruct sidewalks and their users often speed by pedestrians or hog roads.
Last month a video of two people, including a child, wearing masks while they raced along a highway near the Mediterranean port of Valencia on an electric scooter went viral.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 respect anything at all. We need rules. It鈥檚 crazy. They ride on lanes reserved for buses and taxis. They cross in front of cars,鈥� Fernando Sobrino, a 59-year-old taxi driver, told AFP as he waited for passengers in the center of Madrid.
Jose Manuel, a 55-year-old salesman, complained the scooters 鈥渞ide on sidewalks without any control鈥�.
鈥淭here is a risk of getting rear-ended by one as happened to me the other day,鈥� he said as he made his way along the Gran Via, the busiest shopping street in central Madrid.
鈥楧angerous and annoying鈥�
The arrival of the scooters in Madrid follows the introduction of a public electric bike share system in June 2014.
Users of the scooters are delighted.
鈥淵ou move around faster, you can visit more areas, it鈥檚 relaxing and easy to use,鈥� said Monica Rodriguez, 58, at Madrid鈥檚 bustling Retiro park.
She admitted, though, that the scooters can be 鈥渄angerous and annoying for people who are walking鈥�.
The introduction of this new form of transport caught big Spanish cities off guard. In Madrid, which is home to around 3.2 million people, there are no laws regulating the use of scooters.
Now the municipality plans to introduce a new mobility plan that will include rules for scooters.
Valencia is set to adopt new rules banning scooters from sidewalks.
Seizures
Barcelona, Spain鈥檚 second-largest city which is overwhelmed by mass tourism, already bans the use of privately owned scooters from sidewalks.
鈥淪elf service鈥� scooter rentals like those offered by Lime are banned.
When German firm Wind launched an electric scooter sharing program in Barcelona in August, within hours police removed the vehicles from the streets.
The municipality of Llobregat near Barcelona stopped Lime from setting up shop.
The scenario was repeated in Valencia, which has an extensive network of bike lanes.
Lime deployed a fleet of scooters in the city in August without authorization from city hall, which demands a license for anyone who carries out a commercial activity on public roads.
Lime鈥檚 scooters were removed and the firm was slapped with a fine. It is now trying to convince Valencia city hall to allow it to pay a fee in exchange for an operating license.
Lime鈥檚 representative in Spain, Alvaro Salvat, said he regrets the lack of specific laws for electric scooters in Madrid and most Spanish cities.
鈥淲e are the first to ask for them for our users, for residents, so we know where to go and where not to go,鈥� he told AFP.聽NVG
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