Seoul will evaluate how rental operators manage their shared electric scooters and make the results public, part of an effort to curb the vehicles left abandoned on city streets. The city expects the move to sharply reduce complaints related to shared e-scooters.
Seoul said on the 5th that it has promulgated a revised ordinance on promoting the safe use of personal mobility devices, which takes effect Jan. 1.
The city plans first to tighten the management responsibilities of rental operators running personal mobility devices, or PMs, including shared e-scooters, in order to reduce illegal parking and abandonment. It will also assess their performance and recommend improvements to operators found lacking.
The revision formalizes dedicated parking space for PMs, allowing the city to designate and operate parking zones. The zones will be set up in consultation with district offices, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and other agencies, and will be concentrated in areas with heavy PM use.
The city will also require rental operators to move devices promptly when abandoned vehicles obstruct pedestrian safety or passage, and will build an information and communications technology-based management system to prevent abandonment and oversee safety. "With this revision, Seoul's management of PMs expands beyond towing and traffic restrictions to designated parking, oversight of areas with chronic abandonment, operator-by-operator evaluations and the construction of an information system," a city official said.
