The number of offenses related to riding a scooter or bicycle in Prague has increased
Updates: 02.12.2021 12:18
Released: 02.12.2021, 12:18
Prague – From January to the end of November this year, Prague police officers dealt with almost 6,800 offenses related to cycling, electric scooters or so-called self-balancing carts in the metropolis. This is 1350 more cases year-on-year. This was stated by Irena Seifertová, a spokeswoman for the city police (MPP), when asked by ČTK. Representatives of the addressed town halls in the central part of the city then stated that the biggest problem is riding electric scooters on the sidewalks and parking them in unsuitable places. The operation of Segway vehicles has been banned in Prague for several years.
The total number of offenses concerns the category of cyclists, which by law also include riders on scooters, electric scooters and self-balancing carts. “Scooters in the center of Prague remain a problem, especially for illegal riding on the sidewalk. It is no different in the case of bicycles. We solve more problems with scooters than riders on self-balancing carts,” said Seifertová.
“We have been struggling with the problematic operation of electric scooters since the very beginning of their operation. Problems caused by poor legislation at the state and city level, which, according to him, the town hall has been working for a long time.
The problem of scooters is also being solved by the seventh city district, although according to spokesman Martin Vokuš, the problem is not as big as in the past, probably due to the covidu-19 pandemic. “We are in contact with the operators of shared regular scooters and we have also worked with them to remind users that they should not ride on sidewalks outside the bike paths. We have repeatedly dealt with inappropriate parking of bicycles and scooters in places that are not designed for this and the situation has improved recently, “said Vokuš.
Operators and users of Prague 7 are therefore still continuing to leave scooters and bicycles with bicycle stands, which they have installed over 300. “At the same time, we are currently introducing a combined parking space for motorcycles and bicycles, which are also suitable for parking shared bikes and scooters,” said Vokuš.
The town hall no longer has frequent problems with segway carts. They are banned in the center of Prague and in some other parts of the city. “Segways are not a problem for us. We are a central part of the city and our entire territory is in the zone of prohibition of operating this facility,” said Korseska. “We do not record any violations of the entry ban for Segways in our territory,” Vokuš added for Prague 7.
According to police officers, these problems have decreased. “More than two-wheeled Segways are now used by unicycles, which are used by food and youth in addition to tourists and young people. Foreigners, such as the Dutch, then argue that sidewalking is allowed in their country. Ignorance of legislation does not excuse,” .
In 2016, Prague decided that Segways were not allowed to ride in the monument reserve, in the whole of Prague 1, parts of Prague 2, Žižkov, Prague 4 and Smíchov, Libno and Holešovice. The town hall has long complained about the operation of segways, which were mainly used by tourists, and was also criticized by the residents of the center. The widespread displacement of carts from the wider center of the metropolis by the available amendment to the Road Transport Act, which originally looked at pedestrians as pedestrians. The city argued about pedestrian safety about the ban.