Councillors in the Swedish capital Stockholm have voted to almost halve the number of rental e-scooters permitted in the Swedish capital, and to cut the number of licensed scooter rental firms from eight to three.
“We have put our foot down and cleaned up the e-scooter jungle,” Stockholm’s vice-mayor for transport Daniel Helldén said on Twitter.
E-scooters have become a controversial topic in Sweden since an 80-year-old cyclist died in September after crashing into a scooter left in a cycle lane.
Stockholm’s new restrictions will see the number of scooters available in the city fall from 23,000 to 12,000 in the new year. The city will also charge operators an annual fee of around €140 per scooter to encourage them to manage their fleets more diligently.
Helldén said that despite placing restrictions on the scooters, he was not opposed to them in principle. “Electric scooters are used for 60,000 trips a day in Stockholm, so there is a need. This is not about removing them, it’s basically a smart mode of transport if users behave,” he said.
Stockholm’s crackdown is in line with its Nordic neighbours. Authorities in Oslo imposed a night-time ban on e-scooters in July. In September, the Finnish capital, Helsinki, imposed a weekend night-time ban and lowered speed limits after a spate of accidents reportedly caused by drunken riders. Danish capital Copenhagen temporarily banned all scooters in October 2020, although it recently allowed their controlled reintroduction.
