Madrid has its scooter regulation ready: the answer to chaos will be to lower the maximum allowed

Madrid has published the new tender for the deployment of electric scooters. The objective of the City Council is clear: limit the use of the scooter and reduce the number of scooters that are parked there. A tender that arrives later than other Spanish cities, but has the ambition to put an end to the chaos with these vehicles.

40% less scooters. The regulations will limit the number of electric scooters. Of the current 10,000, it will go to 6,000 as the maximum number. This is a significant reduction of 40% that should modify the presence.

A large number of them, 3,600, will be located in the inner districts. This will mean a ratio of 35 scooters per 10,000 inhabitants. The remaining 2,400 will be outside the M-30.

Only a few companies will be chosen. Another big change is that the number of brands will end. Only three operators will get permission to offer their electric scooters. Each of these three manufacturers will have 2,000 scooters deployed.

We will have to see which brands manage to obtain a presence in the city. Lime is the largest brand, but there are also brands such as Cabify (Movo), Bird or Bolt, among many others that will aspire to take over one of the three slots that the City Council will allow.

“Limiting the number of operators is a wise decision, since it guarantees a high-quality model. The model proposed by the Madrid City Council is similar to that of Paris or London, two cities of reference in the field of micromobility,” says Manuel Arauco, director of Tier Mobility, a company aspiring to win part of the tender.

How should scooter services be? Among the aspects that will be taken into account to offer the service will be the following:

• The operational experience in other cities and the ability to reduce the maximum required period of 24 hours of the operator’s reaction time to remove damaged or poorly parked vehicles.
• The quality of the vehicles: the use of vehicles with removable electric batteries and the use of non-polluting vehicles.
• A higher score will be awarded to companies that prevent improper parking and traffic on sidewalks with their technologies.
• Integration with the Madrid Mobility 360 Platform.
• The presentation of an action plan to help make users aware of the regulations and basic criteria for safe circulation.

Of the 18 scooter companies that came into existence, three. Since February 2019, which is when the first permits began to be granted, until now, about three years have passed. In this time the number of scooters has decreased drastically. Initially there were 18 companiesbut little by little many operators have been leaving, until at present there are only six different operators operating.

The next step is to reduce this number to three operators. In the case of the maximum number of scooters, it will also be lowered, although technically there are today about 4,800 deployed for Madrid.