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They are the great champions of the new sustainable urban mobility

. But neither scooters nor bicycles (especially electric ones) are required to have insurance as they are not motor vehicles in legal terminology.

The director of the DGT, Pere Navarro, already said months ago that establishing this obligation was not an option that is contemplated,

although we will have to wait for the Royal Decree on vulnerable users. In the reform of the Traffic Law that is already being processed, for now it has only been proposed to make the helmet mandatory to ride a scooter. On bikes and by city, it must be used by those under 16 years of age.

This does not prevent users of VMPs (personal mobility vehicles) from being highly exposed in an accident.

Without insurance, no one will compensate you for the damage.

In addition, if the injuries are suffered by a third party and the driver is at fault, he will respond with his estate.

The scooter driver gets rid of a miracle

Pay per use, no matter the vehicle

In this context, Línea Directa Seguro has just launched a pay-per-use insurance for MPVs that covers the person and not the vehicle.

You could almost say that it follows it, since it provides coverage regardless of the VMP (bicycle, scooter, segway ...) employed, which may alternate; and it does not matter if it is owned or rented.

Likewise, you will pay only for the journeys made, regardless of the city you are in.

Right now, only scooters or rental bikes have a policy, which is usually with minimal coverage.

However, 70% of the new mobility takes place on privately owned vehicles.

For example, in the last three years the number of electric bicycles sold has grown by 231% (they reached 212,000 units in 2020) and that of scooters has reached 800,000 units.

In addition, almost 11 million people are in favor of VMPs and if they do not use them it is because of the fear of an accident and the risk to other users such as pedestrians.

Beware of scooters: crashing at 25 km / h and causes serious injuries to drivers and pedestrians

1,300 claims and 16 deaths

A recent study by Mapfre and Cesvimap revealed that, in a collision with a scooter at 25 km / h (which is its maximum speed), serious damage is already suffered. In addition, according to Línea Directa Aseguradora, in the previous three years there have been 1,300 claims and 16 deaths from collisions with other vehicles and falls, but also from hitting other people.

So far this year, in Madrid alone there have been nearly 300 accidents involving a scooter.

Finally, since they can be used from the age of 16, many of those who use these VMPs have not obtained any type of license or card before and are unaware of the regulations.

In the same vein, a study by the RACC focused on the city of Barcelona and published last week indicated that only motorcycles had increased their accident rate more than scooters;

perhaps, because 40% of its users said they did not respect the rules.

For example, the prohibition to circulate on the sidewalks.

Everything 100% digital

The new Línea Directa policy is marketed through Vivaz, the health insurance arm of Línea Directa, and is called Vivaz Safe & Go.

It is contracted and managed digitally through a mobile app, which allows it to be activated only when we are moving.

The client can choose between a temporary coverage, at a rate of two cents per minute, and an annual one.

This has three packages.

The most expensive costs 33.2 euros and includes (with limits) compensation for death or disability, medical expenses, legal defense and civil liability.

The latter, up to a maximum of 100,000 euros.

The app itself warns of an accident

For the system to start operating,

the customer only has to activate it through the app when they start the trip and then deactivate it.

The application is also used to carry out all the procedures in the event of an accident, which the system can detect

in the event of a very violent braking since the VMP is geolocated.

Being a "completely new" market, the company does not make business forecasts, although it admits that "reaching 10,000 users in a year would be a success" for

a product with which they want "no one to have excuses for not having insurance."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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