The Slovak Parliament approved a controversial amendment to the Road Traffic Act. This amendment introduces the concept of "walking speed" on sidewalks, set at 6 km/h. However, it's important to clarify: this is not a speed limit for pedestrians themselves. The new rule mainly concerns other road users – electric scooters, bicycles, and strollers – to set the maximum allowed speed on sidewalks shared with pedestrians.
The author of the law, Smer party member Ľubomír Vážny, argues that the change is for safety. A speed of 6 km/h minimizes the risk of serious injuries in collisions and makes it easier to prove violations. According to him, this is the "upper limit of the average walking speed of an adult," and it will be easier to record violations by other users.
Experts and activists, including those from Cyklokoalícia, criticize the law as "dangerous and meaningless." They emphasize that the problem is not the lack of rules, but the failure to follow them. For example, speeding incidents involving electric scooters mainly happen in pedestrian zones, where a 20 km/h limit already applies. The new rule for sidewalks does not solve this problem and might even push children and younger cyclists from sidewalks onto the road, where they will be in danger.
Some media reported that the new law limits pedestrian speed to 6 km/h. This is not true, explains transport analyst Jozef Drahovský. The amendment sets the speed only as a guideline for other users on sidewalks to interact safely with pedestrians.
The opposition party Progresívne Slovensko considers the law "populist and absurd" because it supposedly does not solve real safety problems but only creates restrictions that are difficult to follow. According to the police, there were only three cases of collisions between wheeled vehicles and pedestrians last year. Therefore, critics believe that the priority should be building safe bike paths, not introducing artificial speed limits.
