They stand on sidewalks, lie on bike paths or end up in the bushes: e-scooters.

For two and a half years they have been an integral part of the streetscape of many cities.

But many road users are annoyed about the electric scooters, which thanks to the "free-floating principle" can be parked almost anywhere.

According to the city, there are around 6,500 e-scooters from rental companies in Frankfurt.

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One of the largest providers is lime. According to Germany boss Jashar Seyfi, there are a “low four-digit” number of white scooters with the lime symbol in Frankfurt. More than 2.5 million trips have been made electrically since the market launch in 2019, over four million kilometers. “That shows how high the demand is.” But Seyfi is also annoyed that the scooters are repeatedly lying across the sidewalks or somehow in the way. "That is bad for the image of our industry."

So far, Frankfurt has hardly set any rules for rental companies.

Therefore, the city now wants to take action against the scooter chaos.

A statute should regulate where the scooters can be borrowed and parked, limited parking areas are being discussed.

The new measures were actually announced for mid-November.

But now it will probably take at least until the end of the year until the final concept is in place, according to the traffic department.

To this end, the providers were invited to a round table on Monday.

In addition to the two Californian companies Lime and Bird, there is also the Berlin rental company Tier, the Swedish company Voi and the competitor from Estonia, Bolt.

Open for the establishment of fixed parking areas

Seyfi would also welcome a quick new regulation. Because demand falls in winter, e-scooter rental companies could use the time to implement the changes. Then they could start the next season with the new rules.

In principle, Lime is open to the establishment of fixed parking areas, which actually run counter to the business concept that scooters can be borrowed and parked anywhere at any time. “In order to improve the parking situation, we finally have to start creating voluntary parking spaces.” For this, from Seyfi's point of view, car parking spaces must be reallocated. They should then not only serve as parking spaces for scooters, but also for e-bikes, for example. "If at some point we have enough space, i.e. at least every 100 meters, then we can also talk about an obligation." In practice, this would work in such a way that the renting outside of these spaces cannot be terminated by the user - the vehicles have GPS Built-in transmitter.

Seyfi sees the e-scooter as part of a major turnaround in traffic, in which the car has to gradually give up its high status in transport policy. In Germany, too much of the traffic area is geared towards cars. Even before the scooters were added, there was not enough space for other road users such as bicycles. When the scooters also became part of road traffic, the barrel overflowed. "We are the scapegoat for the failures of the traffic planners in the past."

But it's not just the shelves that are a problem.

Accidents happen again and again with the e-scooters, which are allowed to travel up to 20 kilometers per hour.

You don't need a driver's license;

Everyone over the age of 14 is authorized to drive.

It was not until Saturday that a fatal accident occurred in Mainz when a scooter driver was hit by a bus.

According to the state government, 222 accidents with electric scooters were registered last year.

At 150 it was the scooter driver's fault.

Particularly inconsiderate?

Seyfi knows these numbers, but replies that the share of e-scooters in the total number of accidents is negligible, well below one percent.

The vast majority of scooter accidents involve minor injuries, and the few cases in which drivers of e-scooters or bikes are seriously injured almost always involve a car.

Although most accidents are related to cars, pedestrians feel differently.

In a survey published in October, the ADAC car club found that pedestrians are most annoyed with e-scooter drivers.

48 percent of those surveyed said that they drive particularly ruthlessly.

One problem here is that so-called geofencing - a virtual delimitation of the driving and parking zones using a GPS tracker - has so far been legally prohibited in Germany. With the help of the tracker, rental companies could reduce the speed of the scooters in certain zones where there are many pedestrians, for example in parks or on the banks of the Main. Other countries are already further along, says Seyfi. The technology is already being used there. “We only need to press a button and it is activated in Germany as well. We just need the green light from the legislature. "

Driving on sidewalks and in pedestrian zones is more difficult to solve than the question of speed.

The scooters are practically on an equal footing with bicycles, as they have to be driven on the road according to the traffic regulations if there is no bike path.

They are therefore not allowed to drive on the Zeil unless it is specially signposted.

In practice, in contrast to speed, the rental companies hardly have a handle here.

That would be the job of the police and the public order office, says Seyfi.

"We can't play deputy sheriff."