The mayor noted that residents report problems related both to excessive car speeds on residential streets and to scooters:
I will keep repeating this, and because I travel a lot around the world, I also see quite a lot. Ladies and gentlemen, in the city people should drive slowly, but smoothly. And this is not about reaching speeds of around eighty, ninety or one hundred kilometres per hour on residential streets, which is what we are dealing with.
He added:
Another problem reported by residents is the issue of these unfortunate scooters, which are already reaching dizzying speeds.
Piotr Roman asked his deputy, Robert Rzepnicki, to present information about the city's actions concerning scooters.
The city prepared an ordinance
Vice-Mayor R. Rzepnicki explained that the city, responding to signals from residents, had prepared a solution modelled on the actions of other local governments:
Following the example of other cities, but cities that are not located in Lower Silesia, such as Gniezno, we drafted a mayoral public-order ordinance that was intended to indicate the areas scooters would not be allowed to enter.
The planned restrictions concerned, among other things, green squares, parks and the area along the Bóbr River. The city also wanted to limit scooter speeds in selected places. In the Market Square, for example, scooters could travel at only 12 km/h.
However, before introducing the ordinance, the city asked the voivode's legal supervision authority to review the prepared regulations.
“You cannot introduce this ordinance”
The response received by the city was negative. The deputy mayor said:
Our legal adviser sent us an email after a few days, beginning with the sentence: “You cannot introduce this ordinance in the city because it will be repealed by the voivode through supervisory review.”
The legal supervision authority stressed that the rules concerning scooters had already been regulated in the Public Roads Act, and therefore the City of Bolesławiec could not repeat those regulations in its ordinance.
The deputy head of the municipal office added:
The only permissible permissible form in which we can do this is by changing the regulations of our facilities, where we clearly state that such a ban applies to a park, cemetery, sports field or some other place.
Vice-Mayor: “We are a point-based state”
P. Roman spoke again: – We have voivodeships where cities introduce such ordinances and legal supervision allows them.
The mayor nevertheless announced that the city did not intend to give up its attempts to limit the problem:
In the case of Lower Silesia, our first attempt looked exactly like this. That does not mean it is the last attempt.
Robert Rzepnicki concluded:
I will repeat my opinion: we are a point-based state in which lawmaking depends on the voivodeship boundary. And that is what hurts us most – what is allowed somewhere will unfortunately be repealed here. Nevertheless, we are not giving up; we are looking for solutions.
What do you think? We invite you to join the discussion.