Madrid bans E-scooters amid complaints

Madrid’s City mayor has decided to take action against what many locals see the scourge of rentable electric scooters.

José Luis Martinez-Almeida has just ruled that the thousands of electric scooters left in the streets of the centre of the Capital must be removed from October 2024. His decision comes in the light of scores of complaints from local residents over misuse and dangerous driving by those who rent them.

One of the realities and downfalls of the services have been their popularity with tourists. Many resident in the country’s capital already own E-bikes and E-scooters and use them daily for moving around the city. The issue with the scooter-sharing app companies is that the majority of their customers are tourists with little experience of the city’s streets or knowledge about the bylaws controlling their use. 

E-scooter companies failed to comply with Madrid Council rules

The complaints came after a succession of failures bey the 3 main scooter-rental apps to not control renting from pedestrianised areas, a law that has been in place since the beginning of the craze for the service, and rulings banning E-scooters altogether from pedestrian areas and pavements. Lime, Dott and Tier Mobility, the top three companies, also failed to supply Madrid Council with data regarding rent-from and drop-off points in the city. 

Since the beginning of the post-pandemic surge in city-break tourism, Madrid’s most iconic pedestrian areas, such as the boulevard in Paseo del Prado, Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol have been teeming with Scooters on a daily basis, zipping around at their limited maximum 25km per hour despite thousands of pedestrians occupying the spaces at strolling speed.

The ban comes into force in October 2024 and all rental scooters must be removed from Madrid’s streets by October 31.