Electric Scooter Road Rights Opening Up in Europe and the US

Electric scooters, with their compact and portable nature, as well as their eco-friendly and stylish attributes, could have been the perfect solution for the “last mile” commute. However, due to safety concerns, electric scooters in many provinces and cities in China are facing restricted road rights. As a result, they are unable to become mainstream modes of transportation, with their usage often limited to indoor spaces or parks.

While electric scooters also face road rights disputes in Europe and the US, the sharing economy has driven rapid growth in demand for them. With the rise of the sharing economy in 2018 in Europe and the US, electric scooters quickly gained traction as a popular mode of shared transportation. In the US market, particularly, Bird initially launched electric scooters in Venice, California, expanding to San Francisco in March 2018. Lyft introduced scooter services in September 2018, and by 2020, scooters were deployed in over ten cities including Washington, San Jose, Denver, Miami, Los Angeles, and Dallas. The top five shared electric scooter companies in the US are Uber, Lyft, Lime, Spin, and Bird.

Europe’s micro-mobility market has shown impressive performance, trailing closely behind the US. McKinsey estimates the European micro-mobility market to be worth $100 billion, and in an optimistic scenario, this value could reach $150 billion, just slightly behind the US. According to statistics, boosted by the pandemic, sales of electric scooters in Europe saw significant growth in May 2020, with Italy rising nearly 9 times, the UK rising nearly 8 times, France rising by 380%, and Spain, which already had a large market, increasing by 280%.

With the popularity of shared electric scooters, countries in Europe and the US are gradually opening up road rights. Several European countries began gradually introducing new policies in 2019 to loosen restrictions on scooter road rights. Currently, 21 countries legally recognize the road rights of electric scooters, with most allowing scooters to travel on roads and even non-motorized lanes. Although road rights have been relaxed, some countries (such as the UK, Belgium, etc.) still have many restrictions, including prohibiting electric scooters from traveling on sidewalks, requiring helmet wearing and driving licenses, which to some extent suppress the demand in those areas.

Overall, the widespread opening of road rights in the European market holds promising potential for significant growth in the electric scooter market.