ZAGREB, 28 July 2022 - The amended Road Safety Act, introduces a number of changes, notably regarding the use of electric vehicles such as scooters, as well as the obligation for medical professionals to notify drivers in case they are temporarily unfit to drive, goes into force on Saturday.

The Ministry of the Interior notes that the new law regulates for the first time the use of electric scooters, unicycles, Segways and other similar vehicles.

The law defines areas where such vehicles may be used and the conditions they and their drivers have to meet in order to participate in traffic.

Under the law, all persons riding such vehicles have to wear a helmet and not only those above 16, as is the case with bicycles. They must use cycle lanes or, if there are none, ride slowly along sidewalks and in traffic-calming zones.

At nighttime or during periods of low visibility, all persons riding bicycles, scooters and similar electric vehicles must wear reflective vests or other reflective gear.

E-scooter riders, as well as cyclists wearing headphones in both ears, face a fine of HRK 300.

An electric scooter with a motor of more than 0.6kW or one that can develop a speed of more than 25 kmph must not be used in public traffic if it does not have a speed limiter or is certified and, if possible, registered, the Strujni Krug e-mobility association has said.

The Ministry of the Interior also recalls that the amended law introduces an obligation for doctors examining or treating a driver as well as driver's GP to notify the driver in case the driver is temporarily unfit to drive and to enter this in their medical record.

Doctors and drivers who fail to comply with the new regulations will be fined.

A person may be temporarily unfit to drive for a maximum six months, after which the driver need not undergo another medical checkup.

The new law regulates for the first time the participation of horse riders in road traffic and introduces a new term denoting a fully autonomous vehicle, a vehicle that can operate without a driver.

The law also envisages penalties for drivers using partially autonomous vehicles as fully autonomous ones, without the driver sitting in the driver's seat.

For more, check out our politics section.

March 25, 2021 - In a time and place where people are desperately searching for transport solutions to environmental problems, car traffic, crowds, and limited amounts of parking, especially during the tourist season at hotels and parks, the Croatian company IDDI decided to step forward and design the first Croatian electric scooter.

IDDI d.o.o. has announced their crowdfunding campaign on the Croatian platform CroInvest this week, where the goal is to raise the amount of HRK 250,000 for the completion of production and for R&D to make the world's first electric scooter from biodegradable materials.

IDDI, under the Rolla brand, has developed a product package consisting of the first Croatian electric scooter with a charger and a mobile application, designed and developed for the rental concept. The team, lead by Ivan Šimatović, consists of a group of young visionaries and engineers who want to prove to everybody that Croatia is ready to design and produce high-tech products and be part of the solution to the global problem of transport and climate change.

The Rolla charging station (Image: IDDI d.o.o.)

By offering high-performance scooters, advanced safety systems, and smart sensors that limit speed in populated areas at an affordable rental price, IDDI wants to change the negative public perception caused by the use of inappropriate and often insufficiently safe electric scooters. The Rolla scooter is also weather-resistant and has all-terrain big wheels, allowing it to adapt to almost any circumstance. 

Take a better look at the Rolla product package: 

According to the team, the Rolla project will also offer its users the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and tourist attractions in Croatia, such as the Plitvice Lakes, in a more innovative and interesting way. The company has signed contracts with 4 renowned Croatian hotels for this tourist season, and the plan for the delivery of scooters is planned for mid-April.

Rolla isn't made just for the city, but for almost anywhere in Croatia. (Image: IDDI d.o.o.)

IDDI d.o.o. and the Rolla project have been already recognized by HBOR (the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development) through the credit line entrepreneurship of young people, women, and beginners under the guarantee of ESIF, and has close cooperation with Croatia’s National Tourist Board.

Learn more about the Croatian innovators behind the project:

You can read more about the project HERE. 

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October 27, 2020 – The first Croatian electric scooter, associated mobile application, and charging station are part of the Rolla project by the Croatian company Iddi. And better yet? Everything is made in Croatia.

As Večernji.hr reports, for the electric scooter to be safe for traffic, they put direction indicators and a speed limiter on it, and so everyone else in traffic could hear it, they added sound. It is very difficult to steal because it is equipped with an integrated tracking system, and when it is not in use, it is locked in its charging station.

Ivan Šimatović, the head of the company Iddi and his colleagues describe their Rolla project as a package that consists of the first Croatian electric scooter, the corresponding mobile application, and the charging station, and everything, they point out, was produced in Croatia.

The prototype has already been produced, and by March, 10 should be delivered to three private tourist facilities in Plitvice and Istria.

"The idea is to rent a scooter to tourists in private facilities such as camps and hotels, where crowds and lack of parking spaces create unnecessary stress. We remain the owners and in immediate contact with the users, and these facilities work as intermediaries," explains Šimatović.

The scooter is connected to a mobile application that also serves as its dashboard where you can see information about the vehicle such as speed and battery status, but it is also equipped with some interesting features that are of great benefit in tourism.

"It serves, for example, as a tourist guide because the user can read all the interesting things about the area in which it is located, as well as a display of events such as concerts. And it also serves as navigation, so if you want to visit an attractive location, you can select it on the screen, and the application takes you there," says Šimatović.

The idea originated a year ago, and the goal behind the Rolla project is to create a traffic-safe scooter. The team is one of 19 competing at this year's Startup Factory organized by the Zagreb Innovation Center (ZICER) and they are racing for a piece of the fund, which this year amounts to 550 thousand kuna.

"We are a team of seven young enthusiasts who know electronics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and related fields, as well as the will and idea to produce something of our own, that is Croatian, and solve the problems faced by users of electric scooters," said Iddi.

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ZAGREB, December 13, 2019 - The GLAS opposition party has sent to parliament a bill of amendments to the law on road traffic safety to regulate electric scooters, which the current law list among pedestrians, and prevent accidents.

GLAS warns that for driving an electric scooter, some of which can reach a speed of 40/h, it is not required to have a driver's licence, helmet or high visibility vest, and that they drive without restrictions on the pavement, bike paths, roads and motorways.

GLAS proposes introducing the name "small electric vehicle" for electric scooters, and welcomes their use as they do not pollute the environment or congest traffic.

"Some countries have noticed in time the increase in the number of these vehicles and have regulated them by law. Given the trends, there will be more and more of them here as well, so it's better to immediately regulate them and prevent possible accidents, instead of changing the law in fast track procedure," MP Anka Mrak Taritaš told the press on Thursday.

MP Nada Turina Đurić said having a completely unregulated area was worse than having a poor law.

"With the amendments, we wish to restrict the behaviour of these new participants in traffic because in Zagreb there are already thousands of them. We propose that they must use existing bike paths, so we call on cities to designate more bike paths. Where there are no bike paths, they should use the pavement, and only when neither is available, they would be allowed to use roads, but only in urban areas, definitely not in long-distance traffic. That's why we call on local governments to take a more active part in regulating this type of traffic," she said.

The bill bans electric scooter drivers from consuming alcohol, obliges them to wear high visibility vests and helmets and to light their vehicles.

"We wish to limit the speed and increase safety, we wish to legalise all that because now, if an accident happens, it's not clear how to treat scooter drivers," Turina Đurić said.

More transportation news can be found in the Lifestyle section.