The president of the Portuguese Association of Insurers argues that compulsory insurance for bicycles, namely scooters, should be created.
Galamba de Oliveira was speaking in Aveiro, on the sidelines of a conference on “Safe Micromobility”, organized by the Portuguese Association of Insurers (APS), within the scope of a cycle of conferences, to be held in different places in the country, under the general theme “The insurance in a changing world”.
“There is a problem with the legal framework of protection for this type of mobility, and I understand that in Portugal we have to develop and make mandatory insurance for soft mobility that, on the one hand, guarantees the protection of the driver, but also guarantees some clauses of civil liability before third parties”, he advocated.
For the president of APS, “there is a new reality that we are witnessing in cities today, with this mobility widely available through the new platforms and it is necessary to guarantee the protection of citizens, and there is a legal void in terms of mandatory protection”.
The president of the National Road Safety Authority, Rui Ribeiro, who spoke at the conference, considers that “smooth mobility is here to stay and will have to be regulated so that it can fulfill its purposes”
Accidents associated with the new smooth modes have been increasing, with a significant number of accidents involving scooters in particular, which, as bicycles, are bound by the rules of the Highway Code, which many users are unaware of.
“If we look at it in terms of accidents, bicycles, which include scooters, are very heavy: they cannot be compared with light vehicles or pedestrians but, nevertheless, they have relatively serious consequences”, calls the attention Rui Ribeiro.
The president of the National Road Safety Authority says that the problem is seen more in shared mobility, that is, where the scooter is not owned by the person driving it.
In his view, “scooters scattered around the cities of Lisbon and Porto, people driving without a helmet, walking in the opposite direction, passing red lights or walking over sidewalks, people with reduced mobility or conditioned by some disability bumping into and tripping over bicycles and scooters parked on the sidewalk” are factors that are raising public awareness.
Rui Ribeiro warns that drivers may lose points on their driving license, and are subject to the rules of the Highway Code as bicycles, and may even commit a crime if they drive under the influence of alcohol.
"It turns out that people don't know this and there has to be an awareness campaign by all means, so that they understand that they have to effectively comply with the road code", he concluded.
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