Electric skateboards: they are here to stay

The spread of electric skateboards was fast and global. In late 2017, a former Uber executive opened his own business, Bird, and left hundreds on the streets of Los Angeles. He did it overnight, without permission or explanation. People were with these new devices, they rented them by the minute, they paid them with a credit card and when they had finished using them, they left them anywhere. There were no stations or terminals, as with bicycles. It was a boom.

Price: To rent, you must pay 15 pesos to unlock and $ 8 per minute.

The model was typical of the platform economy: forcibly entering the market, adding customers to demonstrate demand and resolving legal permissions later, once installed. Thus, they have proliferated all over the United States, users loving this way to move and so many others hated by their existence. Without regulation, governments began to ban and confiscate them. At the news, they reiterated that accidents occurred as a result of skateboards and "anti-scooter" groups were published.

Price: They are electric, bend and cost between 8,000 and 14,000 pesos on the market

While in the United States, the policy on skateboards and e-bikes has hardened, especially with that used by delivery drivers, the phenomenon is growing in Europe. Although in Barcelona, ​​Paris, Madrid and Prague, among other cities, there is resistance from pedestrians and authorities.

Bird arrived in Latin America and other companies with short names such as Lime and Grin landed in Montevideo, Santiago de Chile, Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Lima and San Pablo. For the moment, only Mexican soil is Mexican grin. "A few months ago, skateboards appeared in the main cities of the world, and from Buenos Aires we had the chance to see how it developed and take the time to badyze it. or later, it would happen again here, but we could decide how, "said Paula Bisiau, Undersecretary for Sustainable and Safe Mobility.

Skateboarding was incorporated into the code as a "personal mobility device": the name had to be wide to include devices that will appear in the future. A year earlier, e-bikes had been activated and regulated in the same code.