It has 3.000 euros of share capital and must have at least an insurance policy to be able to operate from this September in the south of Gran Canaria. Spadimur, a partner in Spain of the American group Link, has taken advantage of a legal connection to place rental electric scooters in Playa del Inglés and Maspalomas in an area that does not have personal mobility plans, although it does have excellent ambulance and funeral home services.
Spadimur hopes to have the municipal approval, which, however, has made it clear to the company that the slightest abandoned artifact found on the street will bring out the entire cavalry of the Local Police to block their business. The system is managed and paid for from a mobile application and, therefore, for legal purposes, if someone is run over, it is better to equip themselves with a high dose of patience.
If the tourist user is a minor and runs over a neighbor or elderly tourist with a hip problem, the person hit by the vehicle would have to pay for the operation and then file a lawsuit. That is as long as he is not bedridden given the complexity of an operation of this type. That's not to mention the damage to the destination's image if the accident appears in the European press. Spadimur is the subsidiary company of the American company Link, which first landed in Lanzarote to offer a mobility alternative to the island's population in the municipality of Yaiza, and they are already in San Bartolomé, Tías and Arrecife with a fleet of electric vehicles last generation.
The majority of Spanish cities do not plan to hold a consultation on the ban on rental scooters similar to the one that was carried out in Paris this week, with the exception of Barcelona and Valencia, where companies that offer this service are not allowed. The controversy surrounding rental electric scooters, their misuse and accidents have led to companies that rent these vehicles not being allowed in cities like Barcelona or Valencia. There are cities in which the use of rental electric scooters has generated repeated complaints from residents.
In the case of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, there have been protests especially over the practice of some users of leaving them abandoned on the sidewalks, a fact that can be punished with 100 euros. In Palma de Mallorca there is a certain controversy with scooters for personal use, since there are users who circulate on the sidewalks instead of on bike lanes, as reported by a platform of pedestrians affected by the incorrect use of these scooters.
On January 2, 2021, the Royal Decree that establishes the regulations for Personal Mobility Vehicles came into force, among which are electric scooters (for rental and personal use), although each municipality has its own ordinances that users must achieve. For example, the town councils of Benidorm, Palencia, Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Córdoba or Mahón (Menorca), have required that users have civil liability insurance, something that is not required in the rest of Spain.
There are also differences in the minimum age for their use, since, according to their municipal ordinances, in Madrid and Seville the minimum age is 15 years, while in Barcelona it is 16. In addition, the controversy over the misuse of these vehicles It has led to political groups such as the Popular Party in cities like Vitoria asking for their use to be more regulated and specific sanctions to be established for the proliferation of these vehicles.
