The massive arrival of e-scooters across Europe has met some resistance in Germany. The stumbling block is that the federal government wants regulation.....licenses....etc.
So this morning, the newest rule was set into play by the federal government over e-scooters....no use of e-scooters on sidewalks. There had been several cities and states working on some wording that it'd be allowed (like you see in Prague, Zurich, and Barcelona). So that's going to hinder some things.
Right now, the national rule has been set that e-scooters can only operate on streets and bike paths. The bike path extra rule? Well....you are supposed to be limited to 12 kph on the path. The vast majority of the e-scooters being sold throughout Europe right now....operate at more than 20 kph (a handful on up to 50 to 70 kph).
Some discussion had centered on allowing (at federal level) e-scooters on sidewalks but only at walking pace level (5 to 6 kph).
The license chatter? It's still going on.
It's amusing....dozens of hot topics that the Bundestag never pick up or discuss....or marginally ever get anything done, but on e-scooters....for some odd reason, they can find lots of time to discuss this and want federal regulation to exist.
I stood around Bern, Zurich, and Lucerne, Switzerland the past week, and observed thousands of people (some in their 60s) using the e-scooters. There's no doubt that the e-scooter crowd are dropping their use of buses, and probably only using subways to get from one end of town to the other....while carrying their e-scooter in their possession.
Just in the city of Wiesbaden (my local town), I would take a guess that within two years, there's probably going to be at least 10,000 of the e-scooters being used around town. A vehicle for accidents? Yes, particularly if the speeds of 50 kph are the 'norm'. The odds of this all being licensed and these being tagged in some way? Various people think tags will occur. But I've yet to see any other European country go into tags, or the license game.
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