New regulations for electric scooters imposed in Sofia by Georgi Valentinov Georgiev

Sofia, Bulgaria: Georgi Valentinov Georgiev, Chairman of the Metropolitan Municipal Council, stated that he proposed new rules for electric scooters in Sofia. 

On his official Facebook account, Georgiev wrote that Electric scooters are eco-friendly and comfortable for citizens’ transport, but without clear rules, they lead to accidents and endanger pedestrian safety. Therefore, he decided to impose new regulations for E-scooters to ensure every individual’s safety on the streets of Sofia. 

Following is the list of New regulations for Electric scooters placed by Chairman of the Metropolitan Municipal Council, Georgi Valentinov Georgiev- 

• Prohibition of scooters in parks, gardens, squares, sidewalks and pedestrian areas. There, traffic is only allowed by pushing, t. well. they can’t drive themselves.

• Obligation for operators or owners renting scooters to limit their software speed to 5 km/h in areas where traffic is prohibited, and in all other zones, the speed of electric vehicles is to be adjusted to 25 km/h.

• Prohibition of parking E-scooters in wide urban spaces such as Parks, gardens, children’s and sports grounds, green areas, pedestrian spaces, stops of public transport, entrances to subway stations, entrances to buildings and ramps for disabled people.

• Scooter rental operators and owners are required to make clear in mobile applications the permitted areas for parking and moving around, as well as that it is not permitted to drive after ingesting alcohol or drugs or their counterparts.

• Owners or operators who rent out scooters are required to move illegally parked electric scooters within four hours during the week and six hours during the weekend once the violation is committed between the hours of 8:00 am and 6:00 pm.

Chairman Georgiev also introduced fines who violate the new laws for E-Scooters; they are mentioned below- 

• 50 BGN fine for an individual who improperly parked an electric scooter and – movement on pedestrians and other open urban spaces without pushing and driving an electric scooter over 25 km / h

•  500 to 1,000 lv. Property sanction for a legal entity that – did not limit the scooter speed to 25 km/h and who did not limit the speed of a scooter to 5 km/h in parks, gardens and sidewalks. 

• From 500 to 1,000 lv. Property sanction for a legal entity that does not specify the permissible parking spaces in the application. 

• 300 BGN property sanction for a legal entity that does not remove an improperly parked scooter by 4 hours on weekdays and 6 hours on weekends after the violation is detected. In case of repeated violation, the fine is 500 BGN.