Uccle seeks temporary ban on electric scooters

The Brussels municipality of Uccle is temporarily banning shared electric scooters from being parked anywhere in the commune.

Uccle sent a notice of the ban to various scooter operators in the city, though the municipality’s mayor Boris Dilliès said the appropriate legal tool for enforcement is still being looked into.

“I have nothing against scooters, but I am fed up with the people that park them anywhere,” Dilliès said.

“The ban will be enforced until the Region has adopted the implementing decrees for an ordinance on the subject announced several months ago.”

Dilliès says Uccle already has designated drop zones on its territory and is therefore ready for the adoption of regulations that fine users who abandon scooters outside these parking areas.

For her part, Brussels’ mobility minister Elke Van den Brandt is not opposed to the municipality taking matters into its own hands regarding the problem of carelessly or even dangerously parked scooters in the neighbourhood.

The minister's spokeswoman conceded that the preparation of the parking decrees Uccle is waiting for was taking some time.

More pressing decrees than the parking one have been related to road safety, considering the high number of accidents involving electric rental scooters.

People under the age of 16 have been banned from using scooters entirely for this reason, and it has been forbidden for two people to ride a scooter together or drive one on the pavement since July.

Under pressure from the Brussels region, operators have also reduced the speed of shared scooters in the capital to a maximum of 20km/h throughout the city and 8km/h in Brussels' pedestrian zone and on the Chaussée d'Ixelles.