Personal mobility vehicles, including scooters, are considered from today vehicles "for all purposes" and will not be allowed to circulate on sidewalks, according to the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) in a statement.
Thus, their drivers will be subject to the same maximum alcohol levels allowed by the Road Safety Law, as well as the prohibition of driving with the presence of drugs in the body. They will also not be able to wear headphones, or use their mobile phone or any other device while driving.
Likewise, they are prohibited from circulating on interurban roads, crossings, highways, dual carriageways or urban tunnels. These novelties are due to the entry into force this Saturday of the Royal Decree that modifies the General Vehicle Regulations and the General Traffic Regulations, which were approved by the Council of Ministers on November 10.
As the DGT recalls, a personal mobility vehicle is considered to be one that has one or more wheels and is equipped with a single seat and is propelled exclusively by electric motors that can provide the vehicle with a maximum design speed that ranges between 6 and 25 kilometers per hour.
To avoid the placing on the public roads of any device, personal mobility vehicles must have the corresponding circulation certificate that proves that the vehicle complies with the technical requirements of application in accordance with national and international technical regulations.
The General Directorate of Traffic is preparing a manual with the technical characteristics that these vehicles must meet for their placing on the market, the classification of the same, the test processes for their certification and the mechanisms that will be used for their easy identification. The publication of the manual by the Traffic Department will take place in the coming months.
The general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, has pointed out that a first regulation has been made of vehicles that have burst strongly into the cities and that are part of the urban mobility ecosystem, "to continue in the near future with a new regulation that regulates more aspects such as the age to drive them, the use of helmets or reflective vests." NEW SPEED LIMITS
The DGT has also pointed out that the new speed limits on urban roads will come into force in May. Thus, the speed will be limited to 20 kilometers per hour on roads that have a single platform for the road and sidewalk, to 30 km/h on roads with a single lane in each direction and to 50 km/h on roads with two or more lanes in each direction.
The reduction of speed is based both on the new mobility and road safety policies of the cities, in which the vehicle has to share space and coexist with motorcycles, bicycles, personal mobility vehicles and pedestrians, as well as on the demand that numerous cities have made to the DGT to carry out a regulatory change that allows them to adequately develop the new city models.
This modification, which was approved on November 10, will not come into force until May 11 to give local administrations a period of time to adapt the signage and make the necessary changes required by these limits.
