Italy is trying to bring in e-scooter laws after the death of a 13-year-old boy.
Among the measures being considered are reduced speed limits and compulsory helmets.
In Italy, the traditional motor scooter is popular among teenagers as a first vehicle and its buzz is loved around Rome and other cities.
The e-scooter brought with it a similar freedom but also a spate of near misses on public squares in cities such as Florence and Milan.
For Italians taking up the ride-sharing e-scooters, usage has soared during 2020.
E-scooter sharing services are producing "unprecedented numbers” of riders as it becomes an ever more popular mode of transport across the country, Italian politicians behind the proposed legislation said.
The teenager who died suffered head injuries in an accident in Sesto San Giovanni, northern Italy, where mayor Roberto Di Stefano reacted by cutting speed limits to 20kph on bicycle paths and 5kph in pedestrianised areas.
The death prompted the drawing up of four bills, going before national politicians, looking to reduce speeds and add restrictions on e-scooter use.
There would be a 20kph speed limit on cycle paths and 30kph on urban roads.
In pedestrianised areas, a maximum of 6kph would be imposed, which the scooter companies suggest is too low for safe use.
Riders would also need, for the first time, to wear helmets. A ban on riding in the evening, from after sunset, could be implemented as well as fines for non-compliance.
Pavements would be off limits and e-scooters would need to be carried by hand. Rules for parking are also proposed, similar to parking fines in place for traditional scooters and motorcycles. E-scooters would also have to be parked in designated places.
Children would be banned from riding the e-scooters.
E-scooters are growing in popularity across Europe and the Middle East but they have really taken off in Italy where the scooter is a rite of passage.
Last year, there were 7.4 million rentals in the country, with the average journey lasting 12 minutes and covering 1.1 miles, the National Observatory on Sharing Mobility said.
There are at least 140,000 e-scooters on the road in the country and one in every three shared-vehicle trips is by e-scooter, supporters of the law said.
Italian lawmakers say they want to provide a framework of rules.
From December 1, Florence plans to introduce a compulsory helmet requirement for e-scooter riders, Mayor Dario Nardella said.
Meanwhile, across Europe, politicians are grappling with the new mode of transport.
In London, e-scooters can be rented as part of a trial scheme but the use of the privately owned vehicles is mostly illegal.
The trial includes speed limits of 25kph and the e-scooters are prohibited from pavements.
In Germany, riders need a moped licence.
In France, new laws were introduced after a number of riders died in accidents. Now, users must be 12 or older and adhere to a 25kph speed limit.
Riding on pavements is banned and travelling on some roads requires high-vis clothing and a helmet.
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
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- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
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- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
