The number of rental e-bikes and scooters is growing on city streets, and along with it, the number of fines issued for incorrect parking is also increasing. Why do some users manage to leave scooters in places clearly not intended for parking?
Yandex plans to double its number of couriers using the company`s electric bikes for delivery by the end of the year. Currently, «Yandex Bikes» are available in 11 Russian cities, used by over 11,000 couriers, with the goal of reaching 20,000 by year-end. The number of e-scooters is also growing, and consequently, so is the number of fines. Thousands of these violations are for incorrect parking.
According to the Moscow Department of Transport, since the start of the rental season, scooter sharing services have issued over 18,000 fines for improper parking, and 3,000 e-scooters have been taken to special impound lots during this time. To see an incorrectly parked e-scooter, you don`t have to go far; they are found everywhere: near building entrances, in parks, on sidewalks – in places where dedicated parking spots definitely shouldn`t be. Moreover, ideally, scooter sharing apps should technically prevent leaving a scooter where it`s not allowed. However, in reality, anything can happen. Here is the experience of Moscow resident Alexey Leonov:
I usually ride Urent and Whoosh. I often saw people leaving their parked scooters near buildings, but I couldn`t do it myself. When I try to stop and finish, a window pops up saying there is no parking here, find a parking area and park in the proper place. As for Yandex, that`s a completely separate story. I was late for work and thought I would get there by scooter. I got on a Yandex scooter and started my trip. It happened that I arrived at a stop, where all the scooters were parked, tried to leave it, and it told me: «No parking here, please park in a different place.» I was like, «What?» because there *was* a parking lot there. So sometimes, it`s not just about being able to park anywhere you want, but you might not even be able to park where it *is* allowed.
To clarify how an e-scooter can be left in an unauthorized location if the app technically prevents it, Business FM contacted the scooter sharing companies themselves. It turns out it is indeed possible to leave them, simply because users exploit the trust of the rental services. Yulia Lebedeva, press secretary for MTS Urent, continues:
When you complete a trip, you leave a photograph. The MTS Urent application asks you if you are indeed finishing parking in the designated spot. This is done so that in case of geolocation problems, a user might actually be standing in a parking area, but the scooter might show that it`s, for example, at Sheremetyevo Airport. This sometimes happens in Moscow now. Therefore, we trust users, and indeed, they can leave the scooter if, for instance, such a situation arises. If we see that the scooter is somewhere it shouldn`t be, we can issue a fine to the user. Our fine for incorrect parking is 500 rubles.
Thus, this relaxation in parking rules was implemented due to regular GPS and mobile internet failures, possibly caused by signal jamming. However, fines for incorrect parking remain, and were even increased a year ago.
Currently, fines average 500 rubles, which is far from the most severe violation on the list. The most serious offense – handing control of an e-scooter to a child – is punishable by a fine of 10,000 rubles. And riding tandem on one scooter costs 5,000. Yes, people continue to break the rules, but progress is being made, says Alexey Smirnov, founder of InnovaTransport and a transport consulting expert:
Users themselves park in unauthorized places, who are perfectly aware that this is a violation of the service rules. The fine can be 500 or 1000 rubles. But if it is noticed, information about the abandoned scooter will be sent to the «Public Control» scooter bot. And this will then reach the user. Sometimes, understandably, there are many scooters, and we see many abandoned ones. But at the same time, we always notice precisely those scooters that are abandoned; we never look at where they are standing properly, where they are parked in accordance with traffic rules; we only see what catches the eye negatively.
As noted by the Department of Transport, an incorrectly parked e-scooter or bicycle, whether personal or from a sharing service, will be impounded. The owner or their representative can retrieve the vehicle from the special lot. This requires a passport and proof of ownership. But more often, the scooter sharing services themselves manage to retrieve the scooter from the street and then fine the user.
