Image: VOLKER Weihbold
Further steps are needed to get the situation under control. This is how the politicians in charge of the city of Linz see it, who want to counter the proliferation of scooters with a binding set of rules. As reported, the rental scooters parked “wildly” in the city area have been causing a lot of angry citizens and dangerous situations for months.
“We don’t want a situation like in Paris, where e-scooters were banned in the city center, but we want clear rules against the nuisance if someone disregards public space,” said Mayor Klaus Luger (SP). That is why the Vice Mayor responsible for mobility, Martin Hajart (VP), has taken the lead in developing additional measures. Since the scooter sheriffs and no-parking zones are still not enough, 109 fixed rental stations for around 950 scooters are being introduced in the city center. The rental scooters must be parked on the colored areas. “This is intended to put an end to wildlife parking,” says Hajart.
The correspondingly drafted contract with the three scooter operators currently active in Linz (Tier, Lime, Link) will be presented to the city senate on Thursday. After the decision, the new scooter regulations will probably come into force in practice as early as next week.
109 shelves
In the contract, the operators undertake to only ensure that vehicles are rented and returned in the city center (the area most frequented by rental scooter users) at the 109 designated parking spaces. This will happen by means of technical configurations.
For the time being, the station-based model only applies to the inner city area and a part in Urfahr. The aim is that the scooters can only be rented and returned at the predefined locations. But what if a parking space that has been approached is fully parked? “Then you have to drive to the nearest one, it’s like a car driver when an underground car park is full,” says Luger.
The system is to be expanded this year in the east from Holzstraße towards the port, in the other parts of Linz the so-called “free-floating model” (i.e. no fixed rental or return stations) will continue to apply. “It’s a good, workable compromise,” said Hajart.
City councilor Michael Raml (FP), who is responsible for safety, hopes that the new scooter rules will bring about a “significant improvement” through more discipline and control options. If there are still complaints, one would have to think about general ban zones like in other cities, Raml continued.
1500 rental scooters in Linz
There are currently 1,500 rental scooters in Linz from the three operators mentioned. A fourth provider (MAX Mobility) has already expressed an interest in Linz. Around 50 percent of the rental scooters are “stationed” in the center of the city. 45 percent of the scooters are borrowed daily, the average duration of use is six minutes. According to the Road Safety Board, every tenth scooter parked in Austria hinders other people.
Source: Nachrichten
