Daejeon City "Unauthorized Electric Scooter Abandonment Will Result in 'Towing' Measures"

From the 11th of this month, unauthorized parking will result in towing
Resolving safety issues such as unauthorized parking accidents
Towing fee starts at 30,000 KRW with additional charges possible

Daejeon City announced on the 11th that starting this month, it plans to tow personal mobility devices (Personal Mobility, hereinafter PM) such as electric scooters that are left unattended without permission.

The towing action will take place after pedestrian enforcement personnel issue a warning to the unattended PM, and if the shared PM rental company does not collect or move the device within one hour.

The towing fee will be charged to the shared PM rental companies, with a basic fee of 30,000 KRW plus additional charges and storage fees depending on the distance.

Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Daejeon City has been gradually implementing procedures for towing unattended PMs since last year to resolve safety issues for pedestrians, PM users, and cyclists caused by unattended PMs.

After establishing the mid- to long-term plan related to personal mobility devices, the "Daejeon City Personal Mobility Device Safety and Convenience Enhancement Plan," in March last year, the city formulated the "Daejeon City Unattended Personal Mobility Device Towing Plan" in June and amended the "Daejeon City Personal Mobility Device Safety and Convenience Enhancement Ordinance" in August, which includes provisions on PM no-parking zones and penalties for unattended devices, in cooperation with autonomous districts and shared mobility providers.

Accordingly, Daejeon City and its five autonomous districts will be able to actively pursue towing operations starting this year. This year, Daejeon City plans to support the labor costs of pedestrian enforcement personnel in the autonomous districts and develop and operate a PM complaint management system to enhance the efficiency of towing unattended PMs.

Meanwhile, PMs are classified as "vehicles" under the Road Traffic Act, making it illegal to park or stop them on sidewalks or bicycle lanes. In this regard, Daejeon City has established 992 PM-exclusive parking zones through ordinance amendments and allowed PMs to park at bicycle racks such as the public bicycle system Tashu.

Currently, there are nine PM rental companies operating in Daejeon, managing approximately 12,000 PM units.