in-cyprus 3 September 2019 - Edited by Annie Charalambous
Legislation on the use of electric scooters in Cyprus is pending for the fourth year running even though more and more accidents are recorded.
Last week a Polish woman died in Limassol after she attempted to cross a busy street on an electric scooter and was hit by a car. And a couple of people in Paphos got injured while using electric scooters.
Nonetheless, a bill drafted by the Department of Road Transport two years ago remains deadlocked despite parliament’s calls for this matter to be settled.
Insiders told Phileleftheros that disagreements are mainly between local authorities – especially among tourist-flooded municipalities. At the same time, financial interests in importing, trading and renting electric scooters are also behind the continuous legal harmonisation impasse.
In addition, the Police and Ministry of Transport have not managed to provide common positions on the scooters issue yet.
Parliament had urgently called for the drafting and approval of a relevant bill back in 2015, 2016 and 2017 following the rising number of scooter-related accidents, especially during peak tourism seasons.
Phileleftheros has information that following the long-standing impasse, authorities have decided to study legal frameworks applied in other EU member states. In some, there are no regulations whatsoever while in others these are set by local authorities.
A number of big European cities go as far as to ban the use of electric scooters, while restrictions are applied in smaller cities.
The House of Representatives will convene again shortly after the summer recess and this is an issue high on their agenda, an informed source said.
