From October, shared electric scooters will disappear from the city of Madrid for the “safety of Madrid residents.”
HE The Madrid City Council decided revoke this Thursday the licenses granted Lime, Dott and Tier Mobility have been sued for breaches of the law relating to the provision of information by operators and also for security reasons. The fact that there is a new national law, which will come into force next month and which could lead to the granting of new licences, also facilitated the moment for the decision of the authority.
????#Madrid revoke scooter permits???? renting and you can’t ride on city streets
✅Lime, Dott and Tier Mobility will have to withdraw their vehicles from October for failing to comply with the obligations established in the bases
????https://t.co/5tqxOMWGFD pic.twitter.com/TgmcTfEk84— Madrid City Council (@MADRID) September 5, 2024
With these new licenses, Madrid City Council aims to put an end to scooters but also reduce the number authorized to circulate in the city to “guarantee the physical integrity and safety” of citizens. declared the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida.
Our priority is the physical integrity and safety of Madrid residents. We are revoking the authorisation of scooter dealership companies on the city streets. They have failed to comply with the conditions we imposed to ensure the safety of pedestrians, especially…
— José Luis Martínez-Almeida (@AlmeidaPP_) September 5, 2024
At stake is the incompatibility between the technology used by these companies to control the mobility of their users while guaranteeing the safety of pedestrians, explains El País.
The companies were not happy with the measure and one of them, Lime, declared that the news was a “surprise”. “It represents an unexpected and damaging change not only for the companies involved and their users, but for the city of Madrid as a whole,” El Mundo wrote.
Following the announcement of the measure, the company requested a resolution from the City Council urgent meeting with the capital’s mobility team, in addition to demanding a meeting with the president of this department, Borja Carabante, and with the president, Martínez-Almeida, in order to clarify the situation.
This withdrawal of scooters from the city is due to various breaches that companies are committing. These include “the lack of services provided to the entire city, the lack of insurance coverage and the absence of technology to prevent vehicles from driving and parking in prohibited areas,” the mayor explained.
The system developed by the city council limited the number of scooters located within the city to 3,600 and to 2,400 in the rest of the municipality, establishing a ratio of 10 scooters for every 10,000 inhabitants.
However, the municipality was unable to confirm this distribution due to the lack of information sent by the companies, according to the notification. As this, During the month of October, the 6,000 current scooters will be collected from the streets.
From October onwards, the only sustainable mobility solution for Madrid residents and visitors will be the use of BiciMad bicycles.
Source: Observadora
