Debate article: "For the visually impaired, the electric scooters are a real danger"

Accidents related to the use of electric scooters are reported to increase.

Something still delays reporting. All road accidents are of course terrible, but the thing is that it is only when the users of the vehicle are injured, then the headings and requirements for regulations come.

And regulations are required, but they should come about with the perspective of non-users as a starting point. The regulations must start to apply immediately. I am visually impaired, not completely blind, but visually impaired and live in Stockholm.

Now I have to be even more careful when I go out, because the sidewalks are no longer for me. It is nasty when a silent vehicle suddenly appears at a speed that is definitely higher than walking a few centimeters next door.

But what is a real danger is exactly how the city's sidewalks are besieged by electric scooters.

People in wheelchairs, with wheelchairs and people with strollers are faced daily with the choice of either trying to lift the relatively heavy and definitely awkward vehicle, or to go out in the driving or bicycle lane with the risks that it entails.

The visually impaired and blind even lack that "choice". We go straight into the electric scooters and overturn them and at best get away with bruises.

As a visually impaired person, I also cannot pay attention and relate to an oncoming road user riding an electric scooter on the sidewalk.

But it's not just on the sidewalks that the electric scooters are driven and parked. They cross open spaces and squares and stand in front of shops and gates, leaned against cars and left at pedestrian crossings.

Prohibition is rarely a good solution, but prohibition against driving on sidewalks is necessary. Like all other bikes, the electric scooters belong on the bike lanes.

But a good solution consists of several parts: an important part is that the cities limit the number of electric scooters in the cities. The over-establishment in Stockholm and its impact on accessibility is like handling the first snow chaos on a daily basis.

An equally important measure is that the parking guards are empowered to move on and impose fines on parked electric scooters.

Another solution: in order for the price to be paid by the fault parker and provide incentives to park properly, is to allow the taximeter to roll until the journey is completed and the vehicle parked properly.

For in the cities where the electric scooters are located, the city is no longer for all the people who live there or visit it.

For the visually impaired and others with different disabilities, the accessibility and freedom to move around the city has been severely restricted.

The price for using an electric scooter is not very high. But the price that I and many others who are not young and healthy pay is the higher. For us, the price is a diminished access to the city.

It seems strange to me that it is the healthy ones who can walk and run are the ones who use the electric scooters most often to get ahead. But that is their choice.

I now wish that those responsible make the decisions about regulations that are necessary for us, who are walking, to be able to access our Swedish cities again.