Traffic
From parking zones to bans: e-scooters have a bad reputation
Electric scooters from various providers are parked on a sidewalk near Berlin’s Ostkreuz train station. photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa
Few people use e-scooters, but many are annoyed by battery-powered scooters – especially in big cities. Paris has therefore banned rental vehicles. There is also a majority in Germany for this.
51 percent of adults in Germany have a somewhat negative or even very negative attitude towards vehicles. In addition, 61 percent of those surveyed believe that road safety has deteriorated since e-scooters were approved on German roads in 2019. Only five percent see an improvement, while 25 percent say there has been no change.
Rental scooters often get in the way
60 percent of those surveyed also think that e-scooters should be parked in specially designated parking spaces. 13 percent are in favor of the side of the road and twelve percent in favor of the sidewalk as parking spaces.
But rental scooters, which are numerous in large and medium-sized cities, are often parked there – with consequences. “Older people have massive problems; falls are more common due to incorrectly parked e-scooters,” says Jens-Peter Kruse from the Federal Working Group of Senior Citizens’ Organizations.
“In some cases the e-scooters have been parked in such a way that it is almost a provocation – across the cycle path, across the footpath,” explains Kruse. “This is a very big danger for people with impaired vision, but also for all people who use this cycle path in the dark.”
Accidents involving blind and visually impaired people
The German Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired is currently even suing in Bremen, Münster and Berlin “to enforce fixed parking spaces on sidewalks,” says deputy managing director Christiane Möller. “Many accidents have happened to blind and visually impaired people and some no longer dare to go out on the street alone because of the fear of falling over scooters lying around. This is no longer acceptable.” Especially: Where municipalities have already taken such measures, “the situation has improved, at least in the inner city area,” reports Möller.
Jens-Peter Kruse from the Federal Working Group of Senior Citizens’ Organizations also calls for permanent parking areas: “We have to limit this uncontrolled growth immediately.” The Association of Cities and Municipalities considers this “a promising approach, especially in dense inner city areas”. Checking parked vehicles without these parking zones is “only possible with a lot of effort”.
According to the experts, only the e-scooters from rental companies are affected. Owners would treat their own vehicles more carefully, park them correctly and plug them in.
Paris decided to ban it
This anger over rentable e-scooters led to their ban in Paris: the rental business ended there in September after 89 percent of those involved in a citizen survey spoke out against it. The Federal Working Group of Senior Citizens’ Organizations or the Association of Cities and Municipalities (DStGB) do not see this as a solution. “The municipalities in Germany are not seeking a legal ban on e-scooters,” says the DStGB. Something like this should only ever be a last resort. “The focus should be on local solutions.”
According to the YouGov survey, only 37 percent of those surveyed are of the same opinion: they want rentals to remain permitted in German cities. A majority of 44 percent are in favor of a ban. However, 20 percent of those surveyed did not provide any information or did not know how to answer the question.
No driving license required
Because these vehicles are used by very few adults anyway. In the YouGov study, 71 percent of those surveyed said they had not yet ridden an e-scooter themselves. And twelve percent have only once driven an e-scooter.
Only ten percent use the vehicles occasionally, five percent drive them frequently. The most frequently mentioned reasons for these trips: 49 percent wanted to try it out, 34 percent use e-scooters in their free time to get from one place to another. And 32 percent do it “for the fun of the ride.”
Good to know: You don’t need a driving license to control the e-scooters. But you have to be at least 14 years old and the vehicles require an operating license from the Federal Motor Transport Authority and an insurance license plate. According to the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV), 764,000 e-scooters were registered in 2022.