Madrid bans hired e-scooters over safety concerns
Madrid City Hall said on Thursday, September 5, it would ban all rental e-scooters from October because of the risk they pose to pedestrians, the latest city to make the move. "We are withdrawing authorization for companies hiring out scooters on the city's streets," the Spanish capital's conservative mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida wrote on X. "Our priority is the... safety of the people of Madrid," he said, adding that the measure would "take full effect in October."
The three companies currently with licenses to rent out e-scooters on the streets of Madrid – Lime, Dott and Tier Mobility – will now have to remove their devices. These firms "did not comply with the conditions we imposed to guarantee the safety of pedestrians, particularly the elderly," the mayor said. Madrid City Hall criticized the firms for not using technology to prevent e-scooters from driving or parking in prohibited areas and lacking the appropriate accident insurance.
For fans, e-scooters are a transport revolution -- allowing commuters to zip around crowded cities with ease and at minimal cost. For detractors, they are injury-inducing street litter and a hipsters' plague on peaceful pedestrians.
