News Forum - Phuket officials announce electric scooters to be used for security operations

[Thaiger]

Even though Phuket officials banned electric scooters from all public roads in February, they have now approved their use for security operations around Phuket Provincial Hall Complex. Yesterday, officials announced at Provincial Hall they have approved the use of electric scooters as a test phase to determine how safe they are. Representatives from Beam Mobility Team Co Ltd handed two electric scooters to head of the Phuket Provincial Office. The scooters will be at Provincial Hall for 10 months. Electric scooters were originally banned in the island province in February when four tourists in Patong were charged with using unregistered […]

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[Grant]

Arrest them !

Not registered!

Double standards!

 

[Ramanathan.P]

Standards can be deviated with a certain way of approach over the issues....

[Guest1]

9 minutes ago, Grant said:

Arrest them !

Not registered!

Double standards!

I would like them to start with this totally unneeded "ATV's" or "Quad's,  with just a rear wheel drive. 

 

 

 

[Guest1]

4 minutes ago, Ramanathan.P said:

Standards can be deviated with a certain way of approach over the issues....

That is standard, here!

[Zendrian]

I work for an electric scooter dealership in Bangkok. There is still a lot of mixed information about the isolated incident in Phuket involving tourists and electric scooters. Hopefully I could add some information to the often repeated "e-scooters are banned in Phuket" comment.

Our business ended up contacting quite a few government agencies to get to the bottom of things after this incident as our customers had a lot of questions.

 

The police don't have unilateral power to ban things in Thailand, just the power to enforce the laws. As it stands now, the DLT will not issue licenses or register small electric scooters OR electric bicycles because they are below the power level needed to qualify as "motorized", therefor these vehicles don't meet the criteria of a motorized vehicle for the major roads.

 

The same information applies to food carts, strollers, regular bicycles, skateboards, rolling luggage, or any other thing people use for transportation.

 

All together, this doesn't mean electric scooters have been banned, or have ever been banned, in Phuket or Thailand. It just means that e-scooters and e-bikes need to follow the same rules as bicycles.

 

The DLT assures us that lower power motorized vehicles, such as e-scooters, are perfectly acceptable inside sois, moo baans, neighborhood streets, all private property (with owner's permission), many parks, and many sidewalks.

 

Aside from the Phuket incident, I'm not familiar with any other cases similar to this in Thailand.