Poland - Electric Scooters May be Dangerous for the Visually Impaired

Due to the increasing popularity of electric scooters in Poland, our organization addressed users via the Polish Association of the Blind facebook page. By launching an information campaign, we wanted to raise awareness about the problems and potential risks when a scooter is abandoned anywhere. The situation is far more complicated as there are no regulations for users of electric scooters who are currently regarded as pedestrians.

For months preceding this campaign, we received a number of complaints that electric scooters block the free movement of people and are a potential hazard. Also, these scooters had been left on the pavements blocking tactile paths leading to the Polish Association of the Blind.

Our campaign has gained a great number of followers and was also reported in traditional media. We even managed to reach and finally discuss this matter with the manager of Lime, a person responsible for Poland and Central-Eastern Europe. He declared the company will address this issue to its users by sending them an information letter paying attention to the problem of abandoned scooters.

Recently, the ministry of infrastructure announced they are preparing legal provisions to regulate the problem of electric scooters. According to which, an electric scooter should be regarded as a bicycle. Electric scooters should be used only on cycle lanes and in exceptional situations on pavements. The new law also regulates their maximum speed as 25 km per hour.

To avoid potential hazards, companies responsible for managing scooters will have to install special parking stands.

We hope that implementation of legal provisions will clarify the situation not only in Warsaw, where several companies enable such services, but also in other Polish cities where the popularity of electric scooters is rapidly increasing.

With the help of social media (Facebook,) we managed to reach almost 865 thousand people. We received about two thousand reactions, 500 comments, and our post has been shared 5,500 times.

For more than a month the information was visible in the media. Numerous news items, information, and interviews all raising awareness to the public on potential hazards caused by electric scooters. All in all, our post on the facebook page has turned out into a real social campaign.