Belgian cities are regulating shared scooters

Shared scooters have already caused a lot of comotion in Belgium. In order to reduce the nuisance from steps laying around, the lack of safety in pedestrian areas and the increasing number of accidents with the fast scooters, cities are setting up new rules.

In Antwerp, users of shared scooters now have to take into account zones where they are not allowed to go (no-go zones) or only at reduced speed (slow-speed zones). At the request of the city, the shared scooters providers enforce the rule in a technological way, by means of GPS signals.

No-go zones are areas where shared scooters are not wanted at all. These include car tunnels, cemeteries and the Antwerp Central railway station. After a warning, sharedsteps are gradually brought to a halt there. Slow-speed zones still welcome shared steps, but the coaches there automatically reduce their speed between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. This is done for safety reasons, in busy areas or pedestrian zones such as the Meir and the Grote Markt.

From now on, there are also no-park zones in Antwerp where you can enter with a shared scooter, but you are not allowed to leave it behind. This is also enforced by technology: if you park your shared scooter there, you cannot log out of your session and you have to pay until you are outside the zone.

Brussels also has new rules to regulate the scooters. From March on, there are three parking regimes for partial steps: a complete ban on parking (like on the Grote Markt and the Unesco Perimeter), free parking with respect for the road code and without hindrance for road users, and parking only in a drop zone.

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