Speed ​​limits on roads are a well-known rule, but Slovakia, in an effort to reduce the number of road accidents, has gone further and introduced a speed limit for pedestrians, writes Politico.

On the 28th of October, the Slovak parliament approved amendments to the Traffic Act, and from now on the maximum speed on pedestrian sidewalks in cities will be six kilometers per hour. The restriction will apply to pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, scooters and electric scooter users, and its goal is to reduce the number of collisions.

The initiator of the amendment, Ľubomír Vážny, who represents the left-wing populist party Smer, said that the main goal is to increase safety on sidewalks, given the increasing number of collisions between pedestrians and scooter users. The new rule will be useful for proving violations, especially in cases where it is necessary to prove that the movement occurred too quickly in places intended primarily for pedestrian movement.

Although the new rule is due to come into force on the 1st of January, 2026,

its promoters have not announced how the rule will be monitored.

The average walking speed is four to five kilometres per hour. However, according to a report by the British Heart Foundation, a speed of 6.4 kilometres per hour is considered moderate for a person in good physical shape.

The opposition has already criticized the amendments to the law, and even the Slovak Interior Ministry has indicated that it would be more appropriate to ban electric scooters from moving on sidewalks than to introduce a speed limit. Martin Pekár, a spokesman for the opposition liberal Progressive Slovakia party, said that pedestrians are at risk from cars, not cyclists or scooter users, and that the amendment penalizes those who want to use sustainable modes of transport. He added that safe bike lanes are needed to reduce collisions, not absurd restrictions that are physically impossible to follow, and at such speeds cyclists can barely keep their balance.

The changes have also been widely mocked on social media, with some users wondering whether people who run to catch a bus will also be punished.

Read also: Dutch voters head to polls; what to expect?

Follow us on Facebook and X!