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The KUALA Lumpur City Council (DBKL) is conducting a feasibility study to determine whether electric scooters can be allowed to continue to operate in the city.
A task force is already working on gathering data from various government agencies on the issue before deciding whether to allow the use of electric scooters (e-scooters) in Malaysia’s capital city.
Mayor Datuk Mahadi Che Ngah said a decision on the matter would be announced in the middle of this month.
He said the study was crucial now that the Kuala Lumpur police had banned people from driving electric scooters on the road as of January 1 this year, with the exception of areas designated as public parks and shopping malls.
“The head of the Kuala Lumpur traffic control and investigation department, Asst Comm Zulkefly Yahya, has announced the police decision to ban the use of electric scooters on public roads, and we respect that,” said Mahadi.
It revealed that e-scooter companies had contacted DBKL seeking permission for such vehicles to be used in designated areas and zones of the city.
He said it was important that a proper study be carried out before making a decision on this, as DBKL did not want the situation he faced with oBike to recur.
“We have learned from our mistake with oBike, so we don’t want to repeat what happened before.
“But we also don’t want to close the door to the possibility of e-scooters without thinking things through first,” he added.
DBKL had legalized the use of yellow bicycles operated by oBike two years ago as part of the local government’s green initiative to reduce carbon emissions in the city.
DBKL had partnered with oBike during the 2017 SEA Games and Asean Para Games.
However, the initiative turned out to be a failure and a logistical nightmare, as Kuala Lumpur was faced with the unenviable task of having to collect abandoned bicycles driven by the public from every corner of the city.
Some of these bikes even ended up in rivers, drains, and alleys.
Two-wheelers that were once ubiquitous are piled up like hills in DBKL’s already overcrowded warehouses, waiting to be sold for scrap.
“We have established a working group and we are studying the feasibility of e-scooters very carefully.
“Our own research finds that some cities have allowed it (e-scooter) and others have not,” said the mayor.
“So we are grateful that agencies such as the Ministry of Transport, the Department of Road Transport, the police and Miros (Malaysian Road Safety Research Institute) are willing to share their data with us, as they will help us to take a decision about it. . “
Decision soon
Mahadi explained that the task force was tasked with studying the data provided by all the other agencies and finding a solution by the middle of this month.
He said that in addition to analyzing the feasibility of using electric scooters, the task force would also have to study areas where cyclists could park their scooters.
“Based on their findings, we will then make a decision on whether it is possible or not,” he said.
“If we agree to go ahead, there will be restrictions or conditions so that its use does not contravene the prohibition of the police,” he explained.
While e-scooters are not allowed on the roads, Mahadi is willing to consider using them in city parks and within shopping malls.
He said another idea being pondered was to create a zoning system where scooters were only allowed in certain zones and when someone crossed that zone, the scooter would automatically turn off.
Reports are already emerging from the DBKL Enforcement Department that scooters are abandoned in various parts of the city center.
From September to December last year, the department seized 248 e-scooters from areas such as Bukit Bintang, Jalan Ampang and KL Sentral. An Operator’s Opinion In an emailed response to StarMetro, Beam’s Vice President (Corporate Affairs) Christopher Hilton said: “The company has had numerous discussions with DBKL and has always supported a regulated solution for these scooters.
“We are encouraged by the process so far and look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders.”
When asked about scooters that were in a DBKL warehouse, he said the company had not deployed several hundred scooters.
He acknowledged that some scooters had been confiscated multiple times over the past 18 months, but never more than 20 at a time.
“DBKL has never given specific reasons for the confiscation. Some have included that our scooters were taken from private land. “
Hilton said Beam had a virtual docking system that tracked passengers and provided them incentives to park in specific locations identified in the app.
“These locations are selected to ensure the scooters are not an obstruction. Many of these places are not on public land.
“Over 90% of all Beam trips end at pre-assigned locations.
“In addition, we have offered DBKL a 24-hour hotline to report any lost skateboards and have committed to a 90-minute response time to collect,” he said, adding that, to his knowledge, DBKL had not used the direct line.
On December 12, 2020, ACP Zulkefly announced that legal action would be taken against anyone caught driving electric scooters on the streets of Kuala Lumpur after the ban went into effect.
He said that anyone caught driving electric scooters in unpublished areas, such as public roads, would be charged under Section 54 of the Highway Transportation Act of 1987.
Violators can be fined up to RM300 for their first offense and up to RM1000 for the second offense or be imprisoned for three months.
“It is dangerous and we have received numerous complaints from the public about it,” said ACP Zulkefly.
He said such scooters can only be used in designated areas around shopping centers, and users must apply for a special license from the Department of Highway Transportation if they wish to drive the vehicle on the highway.
Electric scooters became popular in 2019 because they were easy to use and it only took 10-15 minutes to learn how to ride.
However, like the oBike situation, cases of vandalism, obstruction and the indiscriminate abandonment of scooters began to emerge.
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