The Taipei City Government’s Department of Transportation announced new measures to regulate the rental of E-Bike electric scooters yesterday, following controversy over under-aged riders.
Department of Transportation Commissioner Chung Hui-yu (鐘慧諭) said the city government would allow E-Bike rental firm Citypower (台灣城市動力) to establish stations only on leased city-owned land, with contract terms to mandate it to verify user ages and require helmet usage.
Chung said that Citypower’s establishment of an E-Bike station on privately owned roadside land violates city regulations which forbid construction on “public open space.”
The city’s announcement came after an elderly woman died last month after being hit by a 14-year-old E-Bike rider.
Taipei’s sole E-Bike station appeared last month in the city’s Wanhua District (萬華), following the establishment of seven similar stations in New Taipei City’s Banqiao (板橋), Yingge (鶯歌) and Lujhou (蘆洲) districts late last year.
The stations function similarly to the YouBike system, and users can rent the scooters by swiping EasyCards.
Chung said that electric scooters with speeds under 25kph are treated as bicycles under the law, making them exempt from the licensing, age restrictions and helmet requirements which apply to gasoline-powered scooters.
However, given the higher speeds of the vehicles, the city government had called for the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to revise regulatory standards, in the meantime using land regulations to impose restrictions on rental service operators, she said.
She added the city was open to promoting the rental of shared electric scooters as a remedy for the city’s lack of adequate parking spaces, including providing discounted rental of city land so long as operators abide by city standards.
Citypower spokesman Hung Hui-tzu (洪慧辭) said that the firm would remove its Taipei station due to the current uncertain legal climate, but that stations in New Taipei City would be unaffected.
The company called on the national government to set a clear age restriction for electric scooter use.
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