One of the most interesting innovations of the new highway code concerns electric scooters. The new rule in fact provides that all vehicles must be equipped with license plates, have insurance and that drivers will have to wear a helmet. If we consider the incredible boom in sharing micromobility services (especially scooters and bicycles) in recent years, we understand that such a rule risks having important effects in a sector that has gradually colonized almost all Italian cities (and which boasts a very respectable industry).
A few numbers may be enough to frame the phenomenon: 43 million trips made in Italy in 2022, 2 million kilometers traveled on scooters alone.
But now? Won’t the obligation to wear a helmet affect the now consolidated habits of millions of Italians (both for reasons of hygiene and logistics)?
Andrea Giaretta, vice president for Southern and Western Europe and Middle East of Dottdoes not mince words when speaking to AGI: “This legislation will encourage illegal immigration, accidents and therefore mortality because like everything that comes from propaganda it is not connected to reality.”
Dott has been active since 2019 with a fleet of approximately 15 thousand vehicles (9 thousand of which are scooters) in all the main Italian cities (among many others Rome, Milan, Monza, Varese, Turin, Padua). According to the vice president, the previous legislation in force in 2021 had already found the square. “Sharing had succeeded in bring the number of victims to zero – he continued – sharing scooters have a speed limited to 20km/h, they only work in limited urban areas, they have more powerful brakes, larger wheels, indicators. These are elements that have eliminated the number of serious accidents. In a situation of confusion and rules that are impossible to enforce, increasingly clandestine and irregular use will spread.”
The issue is that of the compulsory wearing of helmets (which should force manufacturers to place a helmet compartment which risks compromising the stability of the vehicle), of car insurance (which is not so rapid given a ruling by the European Court which makes it inapplicable to electric vehicles) and an increase in obligations that risk leading to a boomerang in terms of safety.
“When the minister (Salvini, ed.) exalts the case Paris, which eliminated scooters, forgot to say that the elimination of sharing has generated an increase in mortality because everyone makes do as they can – he finally concluded – the micromobility sector has an estimated impact of 70 million euros for 2023, 80 million for 2024 and 115 for 2030. The new rules could instead lead to a usage collapse by 40% as happened in Israelwith a potential loss of 1200/3000 jobs.”