Starting August 25, Kazakhstan is introducing strict rules for electric scooter owners and renters: riding on sidewalks will be completely banned, and only adults with a valid driver's license of any category will be allowed on roadways, reports Orda.kz.
The upcoming reforms, fines, and a "cleanup" of abandoned scooters were outlined at a briefing at the Almaty Regional Communications Service by official police department representative Saltanat Azirbek.
The new regulations, police promise, will divide the lives of Almaty's scooter users into "before" and "after." Until August 25, a transitional period is in effect: riding on pedestrian zones and sidewalks is still allowed for everyone, including those without a driver's license, but with a speed limit of 10 km/h. Police urge riders to change their habits now.
"From August 25, the requirements will be uniform. Entering pedestrian zones and sidewalks will be prohibited. Scooters will only be allowed on bike lanes and cycle tracks. If those are absent, they may ride along the right edge of the roadway. However, only adults with a driver's license of any category will be permitted there," said Saltanat Azirbek.
Police plan to enforce the rules jointly with scooter-sharing companies. Users will not be able to rent a scooter without verifying they have a driver's license. This feature already exists in apps but is not yet activated. When entering a prohibited zone, such as a sidewalk or pedestrian street, the scooter will gradually slow down to 2–3 km/h and then lock completely.
Police cite safety concerns as the reason for the strict restrictions. Since the beginning of the year, Almaty has recorded 83 traffic accidents involving scooters. There have been no fatalities, but about 90 people have been injured.
Azirbek cited tragic cases from previous years, when women with children were struck on sidewalks, and in one incident, a couple on a scooter fell into a drainage ditch — the woman suffered fatal injuries.
Notably, the rules for shared e-scooters do not apply to privately owned ones: they are not required to have individual license plates. It is also unclear whether speed limits apply to them.
When asked about restrictions on police service e-scooters, Azirbek said the department does not have its own fleet of micro-mobility vehicles — scooters are provided by a sharing company.
"These scooters have a software speed limit; they cannot exceed 25 km/h. So scooter patrols adhere to the same speed limits," she said.
Earlier, we reported on the rules for registering and assigning license plates to e-scooters that companies and individual entrepreneurs rent out.