Paphos People

A bill regulating scooters – including a requirement that users be aged over 14 and wear a helmet — will go before the House plenary on July 14, House transport committee president Marinos Moushouttas said on Thursday.

The Dipa MP said the bill seeks to end the absence of rules governing the increasingly popular street vehicles.

The committee also discussed the compulsory use of helmets by cyclists, he said.

The scooter bill that will go before the plenary introduces a speed limit of 20 km, he said. Most scooters don’t go beyond 15km an hour.

Users will be obliged to wear a helmet. Scooters will be permitted on cycle paths and not roads. Local authorities will have the power to issue permits for scooters to be used in squares and on pavements within the community’s or municipality’s limits, as well as on some roads, he added.

“We believe that this regulation will put an end to the uncontrolled use of these vehicles and bring order,” he said.

There will be out-of-court fines for speeding or driving a scooter outside designated areas. These will be issued by police and traffic wardens of local authorities. “Use of scooters will be permitted to people who are over 14,” he added.

Akel MP Yiannakis Gavriel said the primary concern of MPs was road safety, raising awareness and informing the public so that drivers respect scooter users. The ultimate aim is to promote micro-mobility and the use of equipment that is environmentally friendly and contribute to reducing emissions and facilitating urban mobility.

Some of the questions raised at previous meetings had been answered, but it still remained unclear who would be responsible for implementing the legislation, as the representative of the Union of Cypriot Municipalities had told MPs that they cannot, the Akel MP added.

Another outstanding issue was the co-existence of pedestrians and scooter users in common paths, he said.

“As Akel, we have once more stated our intention to cooperate with relevant authorities for the creation of a legal framework that is useful and user-friendly for the public,” he said.

As regards helmets for cyclists, Moushouttas said the proposal was to make them compulsory, subject to a €50 fine for those who fail to comply.

But Greens president Charalambos Theopemptou said his party believed it should only be compulsory for children aged under 14.

“We want the state to recommend to the public to wear a helmet but for this not to be compulsory for all cyclists,” he concluded.

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Dave
Moira And Dave

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

with the lithium technology the possibilities for scooters, trikes etc to travel at unsafe speeds on the pedestrian walkway is great, but they are too slow or safe to be used on the road. in 1976 at the age 16 i had a moped which by law was restricted to 30mph, i caused a hazard as i could not keep up with the flow of traffic, restricted to 40mph i think would have been better.
anyway i dont see how scooters can be used on the pavement due to all the parked cars and 30 kmph is way too fast.
but some regulation would be better than none. i would like to see the "cycling proficiency test " or similar brought back. if only there was some mechanism to enforce these laws !

possibly in the context of driving on a pavement, but in general NO. Life is over regulated for no other reason than keeping a plump civil servant in work.

The fat controller should be dumped as soon as possible and remove the nanny.

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Straight talking, no Gimmicks.

Live your dreams.

well Tanny taking just highway regulations how far would you like to see the deregulation to go ? i realise the implimentation at present is poor but what i feel you are looking for would cause chaos as the selfish and careless drivers would have a field day.

If they cannot make motorcyclists wear helmets I doubt they will impose them on scooter riders.
Good luck in keeping them off roads aswell.

BMW as I said earlier " if only there was some mechanism to enforce the laws" . Maybe they should present a bill to parliament regarding implementing and enforcing the highway code laws we have now such an action would greatly improve road safety !

There has got to be some form of regulation, it is ridiculous that without any training a child can go out onto a public highway riding a Bicycle. granted it was very different when I was young in the late forties as there were very few cars on the roads back then.

Electric scooters on pathways is horrendous
For people taking a leisurely walk
They should be on a cycle lane

I suspect this has all blown up due to the unregulated hiring of scooters and trikes to " carefree" tourists, this is based on when I worked on the beach renting jetskis there too were plenty of "carefree" customers !