Deputy mayor: Regulating e-scooters not priority for Tallinn city government

Regulating electric scooters and other light traffic in Tallinn is not a priority for the city's new government, one of its deputy mayors said Monday.
However, Deputy Mayor of Tallinn Kristjan Järvan (Isamaa) said that the city has taken steps to prevent rental scooters from lying around on city streets when not in use, and to make them safer all round.
Järvan is responsible for the transport field within the Tallinn executive, and gave an interview to ERR which follows.
On Monday, you met with Bolt representatives, to discuss the firm's operations in Tallinn. What future plans did the Bolt representatives talk about? What is their vision for how they might operate within Tallinn city limits?
They are still pressing on with their main business sectors here, which includes ride-sharing, Bolt Drive, scooters, and bicycles.
The point of this cooperation is that whereas previously e-scooters were parked all over the cityscape wherever they were used, in conjunction with the capital's transport department, we have designated set places in the city center where they can be parked.
This was initially done as a pilot, but has fully justified itself and even Bolt representatives said that actually it works; it does not significantly make their clients' lives harder, yet the cityscape is now significantly better.
Just as the transport department and e-scooter providers have previously talked about, this project will continue. More marked-out places will be added to the city, in different districts. This is the main item.
The [Reform-SDE-Isamaa-SDE Tallinn] coalition agreement also includes a bike-sharing project. This is also undoubtedly an interesting area, but it was immediately stated that it will not be carried within any supplementary budget; we will look into this matter with the next budget, likely next year.
Most likely in the fall, we will start discussing the solutions for creating bike sharing which might be best. This is a question of whether the city will do that itself, or whether it makes sense to cooperate with the private sector here.
Access to this service must be carried out equally among all providers, as no one can receive special treatment. When parking an e-scooter on the sidewalk now, a 1.5-meter space must be left for pedestrians to get by. But how will this be monitored and by whom?
This has primarily been resolved along with those same designated areas downtown. This is an important reason why we are continuing with the project, and we will mark out even more of those areas where taking and parking a scooter should take place.
If you are asking who will monitor this, well this is a traffic management issue. Both the municipal police (Mupo) and the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) have the option to intervene here.
What, in your opinion, are the main issues associated with the use of rental e-scooters, and also rental cars, in Tallinn?
I wouldn't really want to regulate the private sector market directly. Isamaa is certainly on the right politically. Whether this is concerning dealing with rental cars, which many service providers do, or if about e-scooter rental provision, which again many companies deal with; there is no significant desire to further regulate these sectors.
Let's face it, there are significantly more pressing issues within the transport sector, such as updating networks, updating the rolling stock, and undoubtedly other traffic management changes.
Compared with these other priorities, additional regulation on light traffic is not high up there. Our priority remains public transport and traffic management, in the bigger picture.
At the same time, it has remained somewhat unregulated for a long time now. Or has enough been done now to ensure some order in the use of electric scooters, within Tallinn's urban space?
If we look at usage, then other road users and e-scooter users have become much more accustomed to things.
I think the situation has become significantly more amenable than it was a few years ago. Consideration for others has risen. Statistically speaking, the number of accidents has also significantly gone down. PPA initiatives have created speed limit zones too.
It is also in the private sector's own interests that the image for other road users also remain a conducive one. Without that, regulations must impinge, and in actual fact, creating additional bureaucracy is in no one's interest.
Speaking on the recent edition of Vikerraadio show "Reedene intervjuu," Bolt CEO Markus Villig said that if the corresponding changes are also made to the general transport system, the city of Tallinn could accommodate up to 20,000 Bolt rental cars. Currently, there are about 1,000 of these on the city's streets. What is your comment on this viewpoint?
I think it's great that entrepreneurs have ambitious goals. But as for my vision as the deputy mayor, with the transport responsibility, my belief is that all road users must fit together here, and everyone must be in a good place.
If a businessperson sees that they can justify their service by it resulting in people owning fewer personal cars, then fair enough, but that must be in line with the free will of those same private individuals.
To start coercing, regulating, creating more bureaucracy; that is certainly not my goal.
What changes in public transport are planned in Tallinn going forward? Is there any more comprehensive public transport route overhaul still to come?
Yes, there is. I will also say that we are renewing quite a lot of the public transport fleet. We are buying more trams, renewing the entire trolleybus fleet, and buying more buses too.
But there are also very important changes to the network in the pipeline. A larger mobility model has been completed by the transport department, whereby we can update the network for the first time in 30 years.
The first stage was phase during the tenure of the previous city government, when six routes were changed.
A great example of this is route number eight, which met with a lot of controversy. At first, people didn't like it because every change always brings reactions. But if we look at the data, then the use of the number eight route has increased by 40 to 50 percent.
At the same time, the cost per passenger has fallen by approximately 40 percent. This is a very positive outcome, which proves that the route changes, and the model that underlies these changes, work. For the same amount of money, we can provide more and better services. We move forward step by step with updating the network.
You came in for quite a lot of criticism last week about proposals that affect traffic management, in particular relating to your proposal to potentially move pedestrians underground, to ensure the smoother and more pleasant flow of vehicle traffic. What is your response to this criticism? Do you really want to send pedestrians underground?
I think the mayor summed it up well enough when he said that if our goal is safer and smoother mobility, then there are two ideological approaches at play. One is that we reduce dependence on the car; here there are various options, some are more stick than carrot. The other is that we make traffic intersections multi-level.
Who goes where in terms of levels is not my field, but to render today's intersections faster and safer, this is viable at different levels.
These are two different ideological views on how to achieve the same goal. In the longer perspective, the most sensible combination is both of these.
This means cars also be taken underground?
Yes. The problem there is simply that the road cross-section is significantly shorter than the longitudinal section. It is the price issue that is the concern here.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte