Hotspot Vienna

50,000 fines already imposed for rental scooters

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(Bild: APA/EVA MANHART)

It's hard to imagine many cities in Austria without them. Although e-scooters are becoming increasingly popular, they are still controversial. In Vienna, operators of rental e-scooters have already received 50,000 fines.

This was reported by City Councillor for Transport Ulli Sima (SPÖ) in the city council on Wednesday. In 2023, Vienna restricted the number of providers and awarded concessions. The companies must adhere to certain provisions set out in the contracts. There were originally four rental companies in Vienna, but two of them have since withdrawn their vehicles.

Certain requirements
The companies have to meet a number of requirements, such as removing scooters parked illegally on the sidewalk. The fact that this does not always happen as prescribed regularly leads to criticism. However, there were also problems with a lack of contact persons, Sima explained on Wednesday. According to the concession, they had to have an Austrian registration address, which was not always the case.

Administrative penalties decrease
Ultimately, two providers remained, "who are obviously making more of an effort", as Sima stated. However, she was not entirely satisfied. In the meantime, administrative fines have decreased - from 7,000 at peak times to 1,000 per month recently. But that is still too much, said the city councillor.

That is why there are no plans to increase the fleets again for the time being - in other words, to allocate the capacities freed up by the withdrawal of the two companies to the others. "I am glad that we now have this halfway under control," said Sima. However, she is currently not interested in doubling the fleet again.