Six years of e-scooters: Is the end of sidewalk parking for rental scooters coming?

No two-wheeled vehicle is perhaps as controversial: For almost six years, approximately one million e-scooters – a fifth of them rental scooters – have been zipping through Germany's streets. Paris, on the other hand, has now banned them completely. Some love them as a fast alternative for a direct route from A to B. Others are annoyed because they have to dodge the maneuverable scooters in traffic or trip over parked scooters on the sidewalk.

Although the situation has now calmed down thanks to changes in traffic regulations and improved cooperation between providers and municipalities, a planned ban on sidewalk parking for rental scooters is causing new unrest, especially within the industry.

The reason for this: Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU) has taken up a proposal from his predecessor Volker Wissing (independent) and tightened it up. According to the ministry, the amendment essentially aims to align the regulations for e-scooters with those for bicycle traffic. One focus is on the new parking regulations.

Wissing's original draft stipulated that e-scooters, like bicycles, could be parked on sidewalks and in pedestrian zones – provided there was still sufficient space for pedestrians. Their lobby, however, protested, claiming that the elderly and those with walking disabilities would still be at a disadvantage. In the current draft, the option to park freely on sidewalks and in pedestrian zones now only applies to privately owned e-scooters and bicycles, but no longer to rental vehicles. For the latter, parking must be approved as a special use and also paid for.

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"We are now creating legal clarity," Schnieder told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. Providers and municipalities should negotiate the parking regulations and develop suitable concepts. This concept could then range from parking in designated areas to fixed parking stations to free parking, including sidewalks and pedestrian zones, Schnieder said.

E-scooter providers nevertheless see problems. "In the future, every form of the free-floating model would have to be regulated by a special use permit – even in small and medium-sized cities where no corresponding procedures currently exist," criticizes the Shared Mobility (PSM) platform, which brings together providers such as Voi, Bolt, Uber, and Lime. In large cities, this is still feasible, as processes often already exist there. In small and medium-sized cities, however, such a regulation would often amount to a "de facto parking ban."

The providers are therefore hoping that the new draft will be improved. Clearer regulations regarding the use and parking of e-scooters are generally welcome, emphasizes PSM. "Of course, it is desirable for municipalities to work with providers to find solution-oriented regulations, including clearly defined parking zones and jointly agreed standards." This cooperation is already working well in many cities.

This is also emphasized by provider Bolt, which entered the German market in 2021 and currently operates e-scooter fleets in over 60 cities – in most major cities as well as in many smaller towns and municipalities. Flexible mobility is particularly important there because there are often only limited alternatives, says Balthasar Scheder, General Manager at Bolt.

Overall, they are satisfied with the development of the past few years. "We see that the demand for micromobility is continuously increasing. There are more users, and individual users are traveling more often," says Scheder, without providing further figures. Dialogue with municipalities is crucial for finding locally appropriate solutions. Many cities also provide parking spaces. "And in these cities, complaints are decreasing," Scheder noted.

No-parking zones are also an important tool. "They use geofencing to prevent customers from parking vehicles in certain zones." Following suggestions from several cities, for example, the government has now proactively established no-parking zones in front of retirement homes throughout Germany.

But there are also potentially dangerous situations, such as riding with a blood alcohol level or with multiple passengers on the footboard. Some providers, including Bolt, therefore now offer (voluntary) reaction tests before the start of the ride. If you react too late, you're advised to switch to another mode of transport. If there are multiple passengers on the scooter, this can be measured by the slow acceleration. "We can identify suspicious customers, send them warning messages, and after multiple violations, even exclude them from the platform," reports Scheder.

However, even after six years, a general answer to the contribution of e-scooters to the transport transition remains unclear. Various studies have been conducted on this topic. The bottom line is that sustainability increases the longer the vehicles and their batteries are durable, and the more often they are used instead of a car. However, the balance worsens when people travel distances that would otherwise have been walked or cycled. According to the Federal Environment Agency, this is still too common at present.