The SPbGASU has started a week of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services. It opened with a mass event where students, teachers, representatives of kick-sharing and road safety experts discussed the importance of following the rules of driving personal mobility devices (PMDs) using real-life examples.

The event was organized jointly with the North-West Association for the Development of Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure "Let's Go" with the support of the kick-sharing companies "Whoosh" and "MTS Urent". Young employees of the MTS Urent company and representatives of the association opened the PMDs exhibition, where they clearly and in detail showed how this equipment works. A master class was also held, during which those gathered learned the principles of PMDs operation and were tested on their knowledge of traffic rules and safe driving.

Representative of the MTS Urent company Vlada Kartavtseva said that in such events the company draws the attention of electric scooter users primarily to their own safety and the safety of other road users.

“Electric scooters have become a popular means of transport, especially among young people. But, unfortunately, not all of them follow the driving rules. During this master class we focused on this problem. One of the most common violations is riding an electric scooter together. This is dangerous because the electric scooter is designed for only one person, and the additional load creates difficulties in driving this vehicle and leads to a technical failure of the PMD. All this creates risks for humans,” noted Vlada Kartavtseva.

She also reminded that for safety reasons, drivers of electric scooters are not allowed to drive through pedestrian crossings - they are only allowed to dismount and cross. Drunk drivers and people under the age of 18 must not operate this equipment. The permissible speed for riding scooters in St Petersburg is 20 km/h, and in the so-called slow zones – 10–15 km/h. For all violations, fines ranging from 800 to 1,500 rubles were introduced.

Many master class participants admitted that in some cases they violated driving rules without realizing all the risks. Now they will become more responsible road users.

During testing, third-year student of the SPbGASU Faculty of Civil Engineering Sergey Kirillov showed excellent knowledge of driving rules and believes that attention to this issue should be increased. “Electric scooters allow you to quickly get, for example, to the metro. This saves time and effort. At the same time, you should always remember that in the flow of traffic, not only your own life, but also the lives of others depends on your behavior. At this event, I was convinced of this once again, so I will keep following the PMDs driving rules,” he said.

Speaking at the event, Ivan Beshentsev, a second-year student at the SPbGASU Faculty of Automobile and Road Building, spoke about his concept for the development of cycling in St Petersburg, taking into account non-motorized transport (NMT) and PMD.

Dmitry Petrov and Aleksandr Kuvshinov

“NMT and PMD have a significant advantage in terms of land resources - they are ten times smaller than a car. The experience of other countries shows that in the future, bicycles and scooters will become more popular than cars. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for this in advance and develop cycling infrastructure. Protected bike paths and bike parking lots will help increase the attractiveness of these types of transport by 50% and reduce injuries by 30%,” shared Ivan.

The event was attended by the director of the united community of unicycle riders of St Petersburg "MonoPiter" Dmitry Smeshko, defensive driving coach of the SmartDrive training center, expert of the Against Road Accidents Foundation Aleksandr Kuvshinov, expert of the working group under the Government of the Russian Federation on legislation in the field of road safety , auto expert Dmitry Popov, representatives of the “Let's go” association Konstantin Mazein and Yaroslav Emelyanenko.