Madrid To Ban Rented E-Scooters Over Safety Concerns
(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Madrid: Madrid city hall said on Thursday 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 authorisation 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 licences 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 criticised 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.
In just two decades, electric scooters have grown into a worldwide market worth tens of billions of dollars a year.
But Madrid follows cities such as Paris, Montreal and Melbourne which have banned rented electric scooters after allowing them for a time.
Other cities have imposed limits on their use, such as limiting the number in circulation or banning them from pavements.
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