Despite the introduction into Europe of innovative personal mobility devices (PMDs) in recent years, there are no harmonised European regulations to govern their technical characteristics beyond the applicable stipulations in the Machinery Regulation.
This project set out to assess if a harmonised European PMD regulation would be feasible and desirable. The scope of the study encompasses:
- A potential classification system for PMDs
- An analysis of the market share to determine which types of PMDs would most benefit from EU-wide rules
- An analysis of available collision data involving PMDs,
- Assessing the impact of localised legislation in in terms of both technical and road traffic rules across the EU
- Proposing regulatory options for achieving common technical safety design requirements that would work with existing pieces of EU legislation.
The authors (TRL & FKA) propose 4 possible regulatory options:
- Do nothing
- Amend Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 to bring PMDs within its scope
- Develop a bespoke approval system for specific groups of PMD
- Develop a universal approval system for all PMDs
Option 4 is considered to be the least disruptive and the most flexible and sustainable option, one that would accommodate as yet unseen innovations. Instead of suggesting a rigid new classification system, the authors propose to separate PMDs from L category vehicles based on three characteristics only: speed (max 25km/h), mass (maximum 250kg laden), and a maximum acceleration limit of 2m/s2 under all load conditions. New technical requirements are proposed for 13 additional characteristics.
