Police in Finland have caught and fined nearly 200 light electric vehicle operators for driving under the influence of alcohol, after new micromobility laws went into effect last month.
By mid-July, police around the country had issued 200-euro fines to 190 light vehicle operators for exceeding the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit of 0.5 g/l.
The majority of the fines were handed to drivers of e-scooters, according to National Police Board data.
The new e-scooter legislation went into effect in June. The laws affect users of light vehicles like e-scooters, and to some extent, electric bicycles and human-powered bikes.
The law also stipulates that e-scooter driving is limited to those over the age of 15.
Following a request to the Police Board, news agency STT received statistics about the enforcement of the new legislation, and asked the board's Chief Inspector Heikki Kallio about the matter.
"The police did not really have an idea of how many drunk drivers there would be. It was a lot, considering it's only a month," he explained.
Multiple riders
Older legislation has prohibited more than one person from riding on a single e-scooter at the same time. But that hasn't appeared to improve the situation much.
In the first half of this year alone, police have issued 377 citations to scooter drivers carrying at least one passenger. The corresponding figure for all of last year reached 361, while the sum in 2023 only reached 168 citations for the infraction.
"My gut feeling is that the number of people carrying others on e-scooters has not dramatically increased. Those figures also reflect that police have stepped up surveillance and are intervening more," Kallio explained.
The fine for being caught carrying someone else on an e-scooter has been raised from 40 to 60 euros.
According to Kallio, there are surprisingly major differences in the number of fines handed out to e-scooter drivers, depending on the location.
"In some parts of the country, the way scooters are used is clearly a problem, while in others it is not a problem at all. The incorrect use of electric scooters has been visible regionally, mainly in cities and towns," he told STT.
Injuries, recklessness
However, Kallio emphasised that the new, stricter regulations were necessary.
"Unfortunately, electric scooters are prone to accidents. The situation was its worst when they first arrived in Finland. There were many accidents," he said.
He noted that individual e-scooter accidents usually don't come to the attention of police. The dangers associated with the devices only became apparent after reports about injuries caused in the accidents were heard from emergency rooms.
"For example, in Helsinki, emergency rooms saw a lot of injured scooter users, and their injuries were surprisingly bad," he explained.
However, officers did witness reckless e-scooter operators on the streets back then.
"Unfortunately, that is still apparent. There could be two, or even four, people on a scooter," he said, adding that there have also been issues regarding where people ride electric scooters.
"Electric scooters are permitted to be driven on a bike path, but if there is none, you have to ride on the road," he said.
When asked, Kallio said the police are satisfied with how the legislation has enabled officers' abilities to monitor the situation.
"Of course, it would have been good for the law to have included cyclists in [more of the regulations], but there is no point in worrying about it. Besides, with the new law, officers also can stop cyclists, even if there is no blood alcohol limit for them," he said.
According to the legislation, people on bikes cannot be cited for cycling while intoxicated, but ones who ride recklessly potentially face other fines.
