Like for Cars: Russia Plans to Introduce Mandatory Registration of Electric Scooters, Electric Bicycles, and Mopeds

The Ministry of Transport has prepared and published draft amendments to traffic regulations and the laws "On the Organization of Road Traffic" and "On Road Safety" on regulation.gov.ru. These changes classify vehicles on Russian roads, reduce accidents, and help monitor compliance with traffic regulations and speed limits by two-wheeled vehicles and personal mobility devices (PMDs), including electric scooters, electric bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles. The new legislation is expected to take effect on September 1, 2026.

Image source generated by the DALL•Е 3 neural network

Which vehicles will be affected by the changes in legislation?

Practically all that are not cars. The Ministry of Transport proposes to unify the categories of two-wheeled and other transport so that there are no discrepancies in their names across the country. These include:

bicycle — a vehicle with pedals and without an engine;
electric bicycle — a vehicle that structurally replicates a bicycle but has an automatically activated auxiliary motor with a power of up to 0.25 kW;
personal mobility device, PMD — a vehicle without pedals but with an engine;
moped or quadricycle — a vehicle that does not have pedals but has a seat and an electric motor with a power of up to 4 kW. Such vehicles require mandatory certification as a moped;
motorcycle — a vehicle without pedals, with a seat and an electric motor with a power of more than 4 kW (5.4 hp), which may have no more than three seats for passengers (including the seat in the sidecar).

Anything that does not fall under the characteristics described in the traffic regulations and is not registered in the prescribed manner will not be able to travel on Russian roads.

In addition, any type of PMD wider than 75 cm will not be able to travel on the roadway, sidewalks, bike paths, or other public infrastructure.

What will change when buying and using these vehicles?

Mopeds, electric bicycles, and PMDs will be combined under a single term — "micro-mobility vehicle." From September 1, 2026, after purchasing them, they will need to be registered within ten days in a special federal register. Those who already have old micro-mobility vehicles will need to register them by March 1, 2027.

Rosavtotrans will be the operator of the state register, and the creation of the new structure will cost 294 million rubles. The register will include the owner's data, place of residence, vehicle model, engine power, weight, year of manufacture, and other information about the vehicle and its condition. Upon registration, the vehicle user will receive a special "registration mark" for installation on the vehicle and a "registration label" (QR code).

The data will be required for authorization in the regional information system for micro-mobility vehicles (RISMV) to control new types of transport. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, plus any Russian cities with a population of more than 50,000 people will be included in such a system. For each trip, the owner of the micro-mobility vehicle will have to log into the system and remain in it until the trip is completed.

It is assumed that the vehicle will be able to automatically transmit data to the RISMV about its location, speed, start and end times of the trip, and violations of its owner along the way to the destination. If a person has more than five unpaid fines for traffic violations, access to the RISMV will be temporarily closed until they are paid.

As an alternative to RISMV, automatic registration without a phone is proposed using a "hardware and software complex" installed on the vehicle. If a city is not equipped with RISMV, it will be possible to drive in it without registration in this system, but registration in the federal register will remain mandatory for the owner of a moped, electric bicycle, or PMD.

Sanctions for refusing to register a moped or electric scooter in the register and regional systems have not yet been clearly defined, but, according to sources of the publication «Kommersant», they will clearly be. It is also possible that such registration will be paid, at least for RISMV.

What will be prohibited for PMD and bicycle owners?

There will be many prohibitions. Persons using bicycles and PMDs for movement will be:

not allowed to be behind the wheel while intoxicated;
not allowed to refuse an intoxication test;
not allowed to use a phone or "any device not provided for by the design of the vehicle and requiring the use of hands or distraction from driving" while driving. An exception will be made for cases where the driver uses a navigator (separate or in the phone) and does not use hands for this. These same rules will apply to car owners;
not allowed to fail to yield to pedestrians;
not allowed to leave the scene of an accident involving a PMD;
not allowed to force a pedestrian to give way to an electric scooter with a sound signal;

not allowed to drive at a speed higher than 10 km/h when meeting a pedestrian (or when overtaking them);

not allowed to arrange parking for bicycles and PMDs on the roadway outside of places marked with sign 6.4 ("Parking") and the corresponding sign (with an image of an electric scooter). The same rule will apply to sidewalks and pedestrian paths, but an exception will be made for it in this case if the bicycle or PMD is parked without creating obstacles for pedestrian traffic;
not allowed to throw scooters on the ground;
not allowed to leave PMDs and bicycles in any position other than vertical during parking;
not allowed to pass under the sign "Bicycles Prohibited" for both cyclists and PMD users;
not allowed to turn around at intersections with bicycle, bicycle-pedestrian paths, and bicycle lanes. In places marked with the "Parking" sign and the "Electric Vehicle Charging" sign, only electric vehicles will be allowed to be present and only during charging;
not allowed to park five meters before the new sign and markings indicating the "parking space for operational services vehicles." Only fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, and emergency rescue services will be allowed to stand there.

By the way, the ban on parking in front of the parking space for operational services vehicles also applies to other types of transport.

But the rules for stopping in front of a taxi parking lot are changing: instead of a prohibited zone of 15 meters, it is reduced to 5 meters. They also plan to allow U-turns on the "waffle" type road markings: now you can only turn there.