Brussels suburbs refuse to let e-scooters in

The Belgian capital is basically doing the opposite of Paris, where recently the city abolished the two-wheelers

Back in April, Paris residents voted to ban the e-scooter sharing services from the city streets, sparking ruminations and debates on whether this could become a new trend in large European cities. In neighbouring Belgium, however, it seems that it’s actually the quiet suburbs bordering Brussels that have taken this as a good example, rather than the capital region.

If you were willing to complete a journey on an e-scooter that crosses the municipal limit of the capital and enters into a neighbouring territory, you’d find that this is impossible. This has riled up the e-scooter operator companies to lobby these Flemish local authorities to permit shared micro-mobility but so far they’ve met stern resistance on the matter.

The reason why, scooter operators like Bolt and Tier want to expand into the Flemish satellite municipalities bordering Brussels is because they are really close to the actual city, whereas municipalities south of Brussels are more distant from the core.

Why are e-scooters not welcome?

The entire story begs the question as to why, the governments of the municipalities in question refuse to allow e-scooters on their streets, given that this would improve the mobility integration with downtown Brussels, where many of their residents work and spend leisure time.

According to The Brussels Times, the smaller local governments have been less than impressed with the flurry of complaints about the haphazard speeding and chaotic parking that accompanies shared micromobility usage.

Ingrid Holemans, mayor of Zaventem, a town whose territory also includes the international airport of the Belgian capital, simply said:

We don’t want them.”

According to the VIAS road safety institute, there was a four-fold increase in accidents relating to electric scooters across Belgium in the last two years. And this kind of stats worries the local officials, who have concluded that e-scooters would spoil the peaceful nature of suburban life.

Actually, even in Brussels proper, the future seems dire for the electric two-wheelers. From 2024, only two operators will be allowed to conduct their business in the Belgian capital, each of which will be capped at 4,000 scooters. Whether this limitation might coax the municipalities to open their doors to these services remains to be seen.