A Cork City Councillor has proposed that 15- and 16-year-olds be allowed to drive ‘micro cars’.

Quadricycles, as they’re officially known, are small battery-powered cars which are very popular on the continent.

Fine Gael’s Damian Boylan said the move should be taken to bring Ireland “in step with the rest of Europe”.

“Am I suggesting that 14-year-olds should be handed the keys to the car and let off into the sunset? I’m not suggesting that for a minute,” he told The Hard Shoulder.

“If we’re suggesting that we can give a 16-year-old a scooter, some quadricycles are simply scooters with a surrounding to them.”

The typical maximum speed on a micro car is 45 kilometres an hour, nearly double the speed limit placed on e-scooters.

The average quadricycle is also much heavier than an e-scooter.

E-scooters in Dublin city centre. Photographer: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

“I mean, look, what we’re talking about here is urban transport at 30-to-45 kilometres an hour through a city,” Cllr Boylan said.

“Let’s be entirely honest with ourselves; there’s lots of people who would look at something like the Citroën Ami or one of the other micro cars and say to themselves, ‘Yeah, you know, I live in a city, this is about 10 grand, it’s plastic so it won’t rust.’

“It’s electric, so it’s not going to lead, it needs a lot of servicing and all I want is basic transport to get me to work and get me home, and it ticks that box perfectly.”

However, micro cars tend to have accident rates about 11 times higher than normal cars, and twice the rate of mopeds.

“Look, the bottom line is that I’m not asking anybody to sanction a 14-year-old to drive one, but I’m asking people to consider 16 rules to drive them,” Cllr Boylan said.

Main image: Parked electric micro cars on the Amsterdam Zuidas, The Netherlands. Image: Martin Bergsma. September 4, 2024.