May 26, 2021

Scooter Blacklist


Scooter Blacklist
Врум-врум (vroom-vroom).  Photograph by Let's Kick via unsplash.com

Anyone who has been to Moscow knows how popular electric scooters have become. But, with great scooter-power comes great responsibility. Now the city of Moscow is proposing a new measure that would allow the Department of Transportation to create a "blacklist" of individuals deemed unfit for scooter rental within the city. 

Needless to say, the intent here is public and traffic safety. The proposal also hopes to set special scooter-specific speed limits in certain areas. The limits would apply to all individual mobility vehicles (hoverboards, Segways, and electric bikes are also impacted). 

The Duma is also proposing regs that would prohibit more than one individual from riding a scooter at a time, any person from operating a scooter on a highway, as well as the operation of a scooter while under the influence of alcohol (it was really only a matter of time).

To make scooter driving more accessible, officials are hoping to soon offer special scooter training courses, and they want to attach both front and rear-facing headlights to each tiny vehicle in the city's fleet. 

The speaker of the Duma hopes that their advanced scooter legislation will be a model for not just other regions of the country but also possibly, the whole world. 

You Might Also Like

Not-So Smart Crosswalks
  • January 18, 2021

Not-So Smart Crosswalks

When the Russian city of Salekhard tried to upgrade its pedestrian crosswalks, crisscrossed chaos ensued.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955