On Friday the 4th of March, the Policía Local belonging to the city of Granada were called out to deal with a drunk on an electric scooter using the metro lines.
The CCTV on the metro stations had picked up this person riding – unsteadily – his folding scooter, zig-zagging along the surface, metro lines. When the police found him they saw that he was obviously very drunk.
This occurred around 20.00h near the Cerrillo de Maracena stop after the security guards on one of the metro trains made the man get off because he didn’t have a valid ticket.
He also asked the man to show him his ID, but instead the passenger unslung his folding scooter and set off along the line.
He didn’t get very far owing to the state he was in, wobbling all over the place, so he decided to push it a little way before attempting to ride it again.
When the police did catch up with him and breathalysed him, he gave a reading four times over the permitted amount of acohol consumption. However, as it was not a motorised vehicle (personal mobility vehicles are not considered motorised) they could not give him the normal fine for drink-driving but even so he could face a fine of up to 1,000 euros. If he does possess a driving licence, he wouldn’t lose any points, though.
He was also guilty of trespassing on metro lines with a vehicle, which he can hardly deny owing to the CCTV images.
(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)
Welcome. As you can probably tell, I have a personal interest in laws about PEVs. The rules were announced in November 2020 as part of (or maybe as a sidenote) to reducing speed limits in urban areas. The rules are due to kick in in April:
https://www.eltis.org/in-brief/news/new-spanish-law-require-30-kmh-speed-limit-urban-areas
…with an eye to reducing road deaths.
Some advice for anyone thinking about taking up the hobby/means of transport:
If anyone in uniform asks you how fast it goes, the only correct answer is “25 km/h”.
Always wear a helmet. I know 25km/h doesn’t sound a lot, but it’s faster than you want to hit anything with your face; and the brain is the only bit you can’t grow back or hold together with pins. The smaller wheels on most PEVs mean that unfortunate things are more likely to happen than with – say – a moped at any given speed. There are many, may videos on Youtube explaining why helmets are essential, but here’s the nice one that is usually played to people considering this sort of transport (not that the guy in the vid is going considerably less than 25kmh):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qus2wiRUVBw
Darren: very interesting – thanks for the input 😉
As I understand things, drivers of PEVs (Personal Electric Vehicles – usually scooters, but you’re allowed to strap an electric motor onto pretty well anything) ARE subject to all the penalties naughty car owners would face with the exception of licence points (because you don’t need one to operate a PEV). Unless it’s changed the rules are:
– Use the road, not the pavement (like bicycles are supposed to as well)
– You are subject to all the rules that apply to other road users
– Wear a helmet
– No headphones
– Only in urban areas, no arterial between-towns roads
– Speed limit of 25km/h [1]
…and the unspoken, but most important one: “don’t be a dick”. If you bear that in mind then there is a certain amount of flexibility to all the above rules. Except the arterial roads one.
[1] Weirdly enough, the law forbids (and allows confiscation of) PEVs “modified to go faster than 25km/h”. It’s not really clear about PEVs that left the factory able to go well above that that haven’t been modified in any way. It’s also worth noting that if your PEV maxes out at 25km/h on the flat then it’s going to not have very much power and will be defeated by slight inclines. The “don’t be a dick” rule should be borne in mind when it comes to speed, therefore; which isn’t too much of a problem if you also bear in mind that you are the crumple zone.