Brussels Bid to More Than Halve Scooter Fleet

Brussels, Belgium

One of Europe’s leading cities for active transport, Brussels, is proposing to more than half its fleet of share scooters, from a total of 21,000 down to 8,000, and limit the number of operators to two.

A draft decision by the city government has reached its second reading in parliament and proposes to implement the cut from next year, according to a report by Flemish public broadcaster VRT NWS.

The government also reportedly wants limits on other shares vehicles, such as bicycles and cargo bikes, and will extend the use of ‘drop zones’ throughout the entire capital region, to combat ‘wild parking’, from January.

Scooters will only be allowed to be left behind in those zones and the government is proposing heavier fines, or levies for the movement or removal of a vehicle that is left behind, outside of these drop zones.

The Minister of Mobility, Elke Van den Brandt, has already foreshadowed a strict ban on shared scooter services if the tighter restrictions are not considered sufficient to address problems with the services.

The draft decree still has to be submitted to Belgium’s supreme administrative court, the Council of State, before the government can start a third and final reading.

Brussels’ decision comes in the wake of the recent decision by Paris to ban e-scooter share services as we reported here.