US Nashville bans the electric scooters in the city after the first fatal accident associated with them.
The mayor of the city Nashville (Nashville) of Tennessee, USA, David Briley, announced to seven scooter companies operating in the city that he is ending the pilot program and banning electric scooters from the roads, according to a letter that was posted on Twitter on Friday.
In his message, the mayor states: "We have seen the cost of the public better safetyand accessibility caused by these devices and it is not fair to our residents for this to continue. If these devices return in the future, it will be after a public process, on our terms, with strict oversight for numbers, security and accessibility.”
Mayor Briley had considered banning scooters and a month ago. But it wasn't until Nashville had its first scooter-related death that the mayor officially announced his plan to ban them. remove completely from the city.
The accident happened in May 2019 and involved Brady Gaulke, 26, who was struck by a vehicle and killed while riding a scooter. Police determined that Gaulke had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit for cars and was responsible for the accident.
Seven companies operated in Nashville with a total of 4.000 scooters on the streets. Briley, in consultation with the Nashville City Council, reportedly plans to allow one or two companies to come back placing much smaller scooter number. Companies selected will compete through a process overseen by the city's Transportation Licensing Commission, according to Tennessean.
From the moment they first appeared, at the end of 2017, electric scooters brought a lot of headaches to cities. The current officials of each city that hosts them, try to weigh the popularity of the devices, with the need for better regulation of their distribution framework.
Some cities have proposed overly burdensome rules for scooter companies, forcing them to decide whether to stay or leave. Uber withdrew the Jump scooters from San Antonio, Texas last week, after the city authorities cut them in half. In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo proposed new rules after the death of an electronic scooter rider on June 10, who was hit by a truck.
In Greece, fortunately we did not have any fatal accidents, but the lack of rules in their traffic as well as the almost complete lack of bike lanes combined with the small sidewalks that are full of traps, make the accident a matter of luck.
