In the first half of March, the Center Party faction in the Riigikogu initiated a draft amendment to the Traffic Act. Its main goal is to improve traffic safety by granting local governments the right to limit the number of rental vehicles and requiring companies to more strictly verify users' age and driving eligibility. It also proposes introducing the option to rent helmets.

However, the Climate Ministry, the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications do not support the draft.

They argue that limiting the number of vehicles does not solve issues related to traffic culture or accidents, but instead unjustifiably restricts entrepreneurial freedom and encourages the concentration of vehicles in more profitable areas.

Additionally, based on the experience of other countries, offering shared helmets is considered impractical due to risks of theft, vandalism, and hygiene-related concerns.

The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications also point out that the draft does not define who will monitor the legislation and does not assess its economic impact.

Under 10s ban

The Climate Ministry is also drafting a similar bill, led by Infrastructure Minister Kuldar Leis.

The law aims to ban children under the age of 10 from riding electric scooters, and primary school-aged children would be required to have a bicycle license to ride one. The deadline for feedback on this draft is Wednesday.

"In itself, it carries a perfectly adequate objective and seems logical. However, I would very much like to see the Traffic Act address the entire issue of right-of-way at intersections, particularly from the perspective of bicycles and light vehicles, as well as other bottlenecks that create a lot of confusion and situations in traffic," said Tõnis Savi, one of the founders of the NGO Elav Tänav, an architect, urban planner, and expert in urban mobility.

Savi's views were echoed by Toivo Õnneleid, a board member of the Association of Traffic Trainers.

"Today a small child can ride a scooter around unsupervised – that is a problem. This legislative change would mean that a person under the age of 10 would not be allowed to ride a light vehicle at all, and from the age of 10 onward, at least a bicycle driver's license would be required. This is entirely reasonable, because the bicycle training course would provide at least some basic knowledge of traffic and how it works, so in itself this is very good," Õnneleid said.

He stressed that children would not be banned from riding bicycles.

"The change concerns riding light vehicles. It also means that rental providers will have to begin identifying users and ensure that a child under 10, or a child under 16 without the required driving eligibility, cannot rent such a vehicle. In any case, we support this idea," Õnneleid conveyed the association's position.

Minister Leis said the aim is to move forward with the draft as quickly as possible.

"Even if it cannot be passed by the Riigikogu before autumn, the sector — these rental light vehicle companies — will get the message that such changes are coming. In any case, they would enter into force on January 1," he said.

The minister added that it is currently not possible to obtain bicycle licenses in some schools, meaning the education system will need to begin preparations so that as many students as possible can obtain them at school.

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