▲ Regulations on motorized scooter used by teenagers have been significantly tightened. source=googleLast Saturday, I was traveling on a motorized scooter (MS) in Apgujeong-dong, Seoul, when suddenly a police officer blocked me. It was simply because I was not wearing any safety resources on me, like a helmet or protection. The police officer explained that I would not be able to ride the MS unless I wore a helmet in the future and that I would have to pay a fine of 20,000 won from June if caught. The widely-used transportation that was cheap, convenient, and simple, was no longer available for us. The law has been regulated since May 13th, so you must have a license and wear a helmet to ride the MS. It is also not allowed to travel with pedestrians, and two people are prohibited from riding the same board. From June 13, after a month-long guidance period, a fine of 20,000 won to 100,000 won will be paid depending on the case.
In fact, the use of MS by teenagers, including myself, has increased significantly recently. In fact, the size of personal mobility (PM), including electric kickboards, in Korea was 100,000 units in 2017, but this year it has doubled to 200,000 units. The problem is that the number of safety accidents has increased significantly due to this surge in use.
According to the Korea Consumer Agency, safety accidents on electric kickboards are rapidly increasing to 195 in 2017, 229 in 2018, 257 in 2019, and 517 in 2020. In particular, electric kickboards are very likely to be injured in the head and face when an accident occurs because they ride standing up. It is truly right for the government to prevent accidents by regulating them to some extent because they put teens in extreme jeopardy.
However, there is also a strong backlash that ignores the reality that has been used as an important means of transportation for teenagers. First of all, helmet duty wearing is an issue for most. Most teenagers use electric scooters for short distances. In my case, I use an electric scooter to go to an English academy after the art academy, which takes 20 minutes to get there on foot, but it takes less than 5 minutes by electric scooter. But you can't always carry a helmet for this simple usage of transportation. Students already have to carry heavy bags, as well, thus it is questionable who will use it because it provides a public helmet but does not know how clean it is. In particular, public helmets are very unrealistic because there are many concerns about hygiene due to the Covid-19 risk.
If an electric kickboard travels on sidewalks, it can cause inconvenience to pedestrians or threaten safety. Therefore, the principle of personal mobility devices is to pass through bicycle lanes. The problem is that there are few bicycle paths in downtown Seoul. Therefore, eventually, people have to drive along with cars to ride an electric kickboard, which is extremely dangerous for users to feel threatened and risked. In the end, it is highly likely that teenagers will virtually stop using electric kickboards in the future due to this strict regulation. A new vehicle called an electric kickboard will be in the past.
Some argue that the maximum speed, which is currently set at 25 kilometers, should be lowered to between 10 and 15 kilometers rather than unrealistic regulations. This is because convenient utilization can be maintained if it can be used safely by reducing risk.
