Brussels drastically cuts the number of e-scooters from February 2024

Plus, ending a ride on one of these vehicles will only be possible at a designated drop zone

The Brussels Mobility department announced last week that come 1 February 2024 it plans to slash down the number of publicly available e-scooters from more than 20,000 to only 8,000. These will only be available through two operators – Bolt and Dott.

What’s more, the number of specially designated parking spaces for these shared mobility vehicles is set to grow from 1,000 to 1,500 in the next month. This, however, will also mean that from then on leaving an e-scooter at the end of a ride will be prohibited outside of these drop zones.

Clamping down on e-scooter chaos

The announced measures are in line with a growing trend among large European cities to do something about the unchecked proliferation of the shared micromobility vehicles, which have progressively taken over sidewalks competing with pedestrians for the limited urban space.

Among the many proposals made by the winners, the people of Brussels will be able to benefit from the safest and most precise vehicles, as well as the latest generation on-board technology, while the fleet of vehicles (e-scooters, bicycles, mopeds) will have 100% zero direct emissions and special pricing will be planned for different target audiences”, Brussels Mobility said in a statement.

Now that the licensed operators have been determined, all the rest have to find a way how to remove the extra number of vehicles that they have on the streets of the Belgian capital – hence the grace period of six weeks.

In addition, the regional authorities have selected the operators for shared bikes, mopeds and cargo bikes and have also set quotas for each of these micromobility vehicles in the city.

The limiting regulation will come into force on 1 February 2024 in 11 Brussels municipalities. For the remaining eight municipalities, operators will use their GPS tracking system to limit parking to locations chosen by the local authorities.