New laws in Orihuela have been issued to govern municipal mobility, including electric scooters. The change to local ordinance means that these rules are now local laws and must be adhered to. Although the laws look at general mobility of the population to ensure mobility for all, the rules specifically applied to electric scooters are of most interest.
Flagrant misuse of personal mobility vehicles (PMVs), such as electric scooters, in Orihuela can now be penalised since the new bylaw came into force.
These scooters have proven particularly popular in Orihuela Costa, where there is little public transport, and the taxi service has far too few vehicles and cannot meet demand. Scooters have fast become a cost-effective and convenient way to zip round the coast, with people of all ages catching on to the trend.
However, the new laws state scooter riders must adhere to general traffic rules; so no riding against the flow of traffic or cutting across pedestrian crossings. It is illegal to use an electric scooter on pavements, promenades or in other pedestrianised areas.
Riders cannot use mobile phones or music headphones whilst travelling – they must focus on the sound around them in order to be able to react to emergency situations. However, the biggest rule affecting scooter users is that more than one person is not allowed under any circumstances – this includes a parent transporting a child. All electric scooters are single person vehicles and riders must be 16 years of age or over. Children are not allowed on electric scooters under any circumstances.
Parents need to take note of these new laws as fines of 100 euros or more will be issued to any electric scooter users caught breaking the new regulations and those regulations are in force now.