Malaga has four accidents a week involving scooters

According to statistics when it comes to accidents caused by the misuse of electric scooters, Malaga is the second most dangerous city in Spain.

In 2022, scooters accounted for four accidents a week in Malaga, with 210 cases registered by the Malaga Local Police. Added together with incidents involving bicycles, the statistic rises to more than one a day with 374 for the whole year, writes Malaga Hoy, Wednesday, April 19.

Figures just in for the first quarter of 2023, indicate that 80 incidents involving personal injury and/or property damage were caused by personal mobility vehicles.

So far scooters have accounted for 43 accidents, compared to 37 incidents involving cyclists. And, during May and August last year over 20 accidents per month were recorded.

At the moment Malaga makes concessions to six rental scooter companies: Lime, Bird, Link, Dott, Bolt and Tier, with each operating 225 personal mobility vehicles (PMVs).

The City Council is currently trying to legislate for just one firm to operate micro-mobility in the city, as well as allowing the circulation and parking of 350 electric bicycles from Dolt and Bolt respectively.

The City Council has banned the use of this type of vehicle on pavements and pedestrian areas. Scooter rental companies are obliged to deactivate the vehicles telematically by means of a geolocation system when any of them enters a restricted area.

According to a Study on road safety in cities published on Monday by the company Midas, Malaga is the second most unsafe large Spanish capital for driving a scooter or electric bicycle.

The report stated that in Malaga, 76.5% of citizens, believe it is unsafe to drive with these vehicles, the second worst result in the country behind Madrid (80.9%). The third worst is Murcia with 71%.

The people of Malaga that were surveyed believe that the capital is neither safe nor well-adapted for electric scooters.

Regulations require that scooters are to be driven on the road like other vehicles, and this creates a feeling of danger both for the scooter driver and for those driving a car or lorry. Fortunately, so far, no serious accidents have been reported in Malaga.