Just as the issues surrounding the use of shared e-scooters in Brussels were starting to improve – save for a rise in the number of accidents – the Brussels government has decided to ban shared e-scooters starting in 2027.
The decision stems from a rising number of accidents, increased nuisance to other road users, and the misuse of shared e-scooters for criminal purposes. However, mobility experts argue it is primarily a “populist measure targeting the wrong group”.
The two foreign operators of shared e-scooters active in Brussels, Bolt and Dott, have reacted with deep disappointment, arguing that the ban is counterproductive and that the decision will cause people to switch to their own unregulated, untrackable, and unsupervised e-scooters.
Following the footsteps of Paris, Madrid, and Prague
In 2025, 666 people were injured in the Brussels-Capital Region following e-scooter accidents, an increase of more than a quarter compared to 2024. And according to Brussels prosecutor Julien Moinil, shared e-scooters were used in 25 shootings in the capital last year.
Reason enough to ban shared e-scooters, the Brussels government believes, thereby following the same paths as Paris, Madrid, and Prague, where shared e-scooters have already disappeared from the cityscape.
The fact that press releases specifically cite these cities as precedents but not London, which took the opposite approach and can demonstrate positive results, is telling, but more on that later.
The point is that the Brussels government has decided not to renew the contracts of the current providers – the Estonian company Bolt and the Dutch-French company Dott – when they expire at the end of this year.
Counterproductive
The companies involved are “deeply disappointed” by the ban. According to Bolt, the decision will cause people to switch to personal e-scooters, “which are unregulated, cannot be tracked, and are not supervised by an operator.”
Bolt further argues that the ban affects not only shared mobility companies and their employees, but also the people of Brussels. “More than 150,000 Brussels residents use shared e-scooters.”
“With nearly 40,000 daily trips, they play a key role in Brussels’ mobility system. Shared e-scooters are not a leisure activity, but transportation infrastructure,” says the company, which has just invested in a new fleet of e-scooters equipped with AI-based safety systems, rolled out specifically in Brussels.
Competitor Dott, which could lose 60 jobs, also criticizes the decision. Like Bolt, it points to the advantage of shared e-scooters over privately owned ones and to recent investments. In addition, the company argues for broadening the safety debate. “Cyclists and e-scooter users are constantly at risk from cars and trucks. Should we ban those, too?”
Why not stricter rules instead of a ban?
Dott’s latest comment indeed confirms that the Brussels government’s decision was not based on “which model yields the best safety results,” let alone on an equity impact analysis, much less a public consultation.
Just yesterday, the traffic institute Vias announced that in Flanders, there were nearly 30% more accidents involving speed pedelecs in the first three months of this year than in the same period last year: from 142 to 184.
In other words, if you take this logic to its extreme, you could argue for banning any mode of transportation with rising accident rates. Yet that doesn’t happen, and that’s precisely where the problem lies.
Bolt, for example, has already taken several steps to make its shared scooters safer, such as installing detection systems to identify riders carrying passengers, introducing alcohol tests in the app, and collaborating with authorities to enforce parking regulations better.
Since the mandatory introduction of parking and drop-off zones, the number of haphazardly parked e-scooters that often block the way for other road users has, in fact, improved significantly.
According to mobility expert Dirk Lauwers (UA), Brussels would have been better off following London’s example, where stricter rules are being implemented.
In London, private e-scooters are banned on public roads, while shared e-scooters remain permitted, leading to a doubling of their usage. “The number of accidents has risen slightly, but the risk of an accident per user has fallen sharply, and it’s getting safer every year,” Lauwers told BRUZZ.
It is also noteworthy that London – where the e-scooter will not move if there are two people on it – has achieved this result without a helmet mandate – a measure that Minister of Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) is working on.
And as for the crime argument, the ban targets the tool, not the practice. Anyone who uses a shared e-scooter to flee from the police will buy their own e-scooter, a fat bike, or a second-hand scooter after the ban – items that are already harder to track than a shared e-scooter.
Not a neutral measure
The shared mobility network organization Way To Go is also concerned about the negative consequences the ban will have on users. Shared e-scooters are indispensable for many people because there is simply no alternative, the organization says.
According to Way To Go, the Belgian capital city has demonstrated in recent years that regulation works: the number of shared e-scooters dropped by 44% while the number of rides rose slightly. “We acknowledge that there are still problems, but the right choice is not less shared mobility, but better shared mobility,” says director Jeffrey Matthijs.
The newspaper De Morgen also highlights another problem: young women in Brussels rely on shared e-scooters to get home safely. “You’re more vulnerable on foot, and the subway is sketchy at night,” said one young woman.
And, not unimportantly from a social perspective, the measure is certainly not neutral. “Research at the University of Antwerp last year showed that e-scooter users have a different profile than e-bike users,” Lauwers says in the newspaper.
“They are younger, more male, and more likely to have an immigrant background. In Flanders, one in three people doesn’t own a bicycle, and over 40% don’t own a car. In the capital, that group without an alternative is likely even larger.”
Focus on bike-sharing
As a countermeasure, Brussels Minister of Mobility Elke Van den Brandt (Groen) wants to focus more on bike-sharing – the Brussels government has just extended the concession by two years.
But the outdated Villo! bike-sharing system, operated by JCDecaux, won’t receive its long-awaited update – featuring e-bikes and fixed bike stations in all Brussels neighborhoods – until the fall of 2028, two years later than planned.
In general, cities that have banned shared e-scooters have subsequently focused more on bike-sharing. But the irony is that, although they have seen a significant drop in e-scooter accidents, the pressure on the infrastructure there has shifted, leading to a rise in e-bike incidents.
