Users of electric scooters will have to wear a helmet from February 1 in Barcelona. This was announced yesterday by the first deputy mayor for Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing, Laia Bonet, in the municipal commission where the Traffic, Pedestrian and Vehicle Ordinance was approved. The modification will come into force if it is definitively approved during the next session of the plenary session of the municipal council, on November 29.
The new standard establishes order in compliance with personal mobility vehicles (VMP) and its behavior in the mobility of the city and seeks to preserve sidewalks as pedestrian spaces, while contributing to the promotion of sustainable and active modes of transport.
The proposed modification of the ordinance defines VMPs as single-seater vehicles, which is why only one person can travel alone, and recalls the essential safety elements: the compulsory wearing of a helmet and the fact that the vehicle is equipped with lights front and rear. It should be remembered that the regulations in force prohibit the use of the VMP by minors under 16 years of age and limit its use to cycle path and streets with a speed limit of 30 km/h or lower. In this sense, the modification of the ordinance clarifies the traffic conditions, prohibiting traffic on 50 streets and defining the maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour, reduced to 10 for cycle paths on sidewalks.
The will of the municipal Government is insisted by the Consistory chaired by Jaume Collboniis to “preserve the pedestrian sidewalk, for which the new text prohibits circulation on the sidewalks for both bicycles and VMPs, leaving this space as exclusive to mobility on foot”. This measure, they add, will be done in a manner compatible with the protection of children and will not be applied in the case of children, since children under 12 years old and the adults accompanying them will be able to cycle on the sidewalks. , which would be extended to 14 years in streets without cycle paths.
In the same vein of preserving pedestrian sidewalks, the proposed modification structurally establishes that motorcycles cannot park on the sidewalk. school environments or hospital centers, as a measure to improve coexistence and give priority to pedestrians when entering, exiting and staying in these particularly sensitive areas.
On the other hand, the new text also sets specific conditions for the use of public space by cycles and VMPs used for the urban distribution of goods, with the aim of improving the operating conditions of cycles and VMPs. for which they are intended. . With the new standard, these vehicles will be able to use the spaces activated for loading and unloading under the same conditions as other motor vehicles. Cycles and VMPs dedicated to distribution may also stop in sidewalk spaces where motorcycle parking is authorized, provided that there is no space provided for this purpose.
