Electric scooters arrive in March in the city of Coimbra
The Chamber of Coimbra today formalized an agreement with a company for the installation and operation of a system of sharing electric scooters in the city, which will enter service on March 1st.
“This is a form that the municipality has found to regulate the activity” (use of scooters in public space), said the mayor of the municipality, Manuel Machado, during the signing session of the protocol with the company Lime, a Portuguese city (already operating in Lisbon) and is already present in 15 European cities, according to its director, Nuno Inácio.
The advantages of this means of transport, in particular in terms of the environment, justify encouraging its use, said Manuel Machado, stressing that, however, this is a “challenge”, particularly for its users and for the residents of the city “on which” good use of public space “depends first and foremost.
The environmental and energy gains are “a point in favor of this system, which allows the use of the car to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, particulate matter, ambient noise, energy consumption, traffic congestion, improving the quality of the air and the urban environment, “explains the Chamber of Coimbra, in a note distributed during the session.
“Aware of the challenge” and of “some risks” that the introduction of the scooters in the life of the city entails, the mayor of Coimbra affirms himself “confident”, but asks “all, from the inhabitants” and the users ( which hopes to be “the first self-inspectors”) to cooperate to better integrate this means of transport into the city’s mobility.
Until the start of the electric scooter sharing system in Coimbra, “safety and education campaigns” will be carried out to promote their responsible use, from “the [recommended] use of the helmet” to safe and respectful driving of transit, to “the correct parking,” said the head of the Lime added.
Running between 05:00 am and 9:00 p.m., the 200 to 400 riders in service in the municipality of Coimbra, whose use is prohibited to minors under 18, will have a total of 70 parking spots, “without obstructing pedestrian circulation zones, accesses and parking lots “, which will be demarcated by the Chamber.
Reaching the maximum speed of 25 kilometers/hour, which will be “much lower” in some streets and spaces of the city, essentially located in Lower and Upper Historic, limited by the operator’s software (through the GPS signal), the scooter, interdicted in the pedestrian walks, it costs a euro (to unlock it) and 15 cents per minute of use.
