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From February 1, electric scooters and other personal mobility vehicles will be banned from public transport in Barcelona, and flouters will face a fine of 200 euros. It’s estimated that the regulation will affect some 8,300 people daily who carry their scooters on trains, subways, buses and trams.

 

The ban will be in place for six months to give the authorities time to work on regulations that will guarantee the safety of electric vehicles on public transport. The move was sparked by the explosion of a scooter that had been left charging on a train in November and which injured three passengers.

 

According to the Autoritat del Transport Metropolità (ATM), officials in Barcelona will be allowed to fine people from the outset, although initially "there will be a time frame in which information will be prioritised over the sanction".

 

Scooter users are understandably upset, as the ban will make their journeys and commutes that much longer. The Association of Mobility, Sustainable Environment and Smart Companies (AEMES Smart) has also disputed the regulations, arguing that only charging electric vehicles on public transport should be prohibited.

 

To lessen the impact on scooter users, the authorities have "guaranteed" to install ample parking for personal mobility vehicles "in the vast majority" of train and bus stations.

 

"Our objective is to move towards compatibility, but since the first thing is to guarantee safety, we have no other solution than to face coordinated work to see how we can ensure that incidents can be avoided," the president of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), Laia Bonet, said on announcing the ban.

 

 

Image: ATM