For pedestrians, hurdles on the sidewalk, for cyclists, opponents on the bike path that has to be divided, for drivers, wobbly troublemakers in the flow of traffic, and for many a climate protector, metal housings filled with lithium.

When it comes to e-scooters, road users who are actually hostile to each other are united in their opinion: the scooters could go.

Carlota Brandis

volunteer

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But there are those who regularly drive through German cities on e-scooters from the providers Lime, Voi, Tier and Bolt.

In downtown Frankfurt alone, between Freßgass' and Opernplatz, for example, e-scooter drivers sometimes zoom past pedestrians every minute.

The scooter drivers wear suits and briefcases, winter jackets and shopping bags or hats and backpacks.

Christian Schuhegger lives in Frankfurt and is an office commuter.

This means that every day he has to travel back and forth between two locations of the company where he works.

The two offices are in the Westend and close to the Opernplatz - approximately 1.5 kilometers apart, a fifteen minute walk.

Schuhegger finds it “too long” to walk the route several times a day during working hours.

With public transport he would be on the road even longer.

He points to the e-scooter that has just been parked.

"It takes three minutes." The offer is particularly appropriate in Frankfurt.

Because the city center also has such short distances for other dates that they can be covered quickly with the scooters.

number limitation

Here in particular, the city of Frankfurt wants to introduce stricter rules for e-scooters.

Since last year, the "sharing" providers have had to obtain a special use permit for each scooter.

It is also stipulated that only 1000 scooters per operator may be offered in the extended inner city area.

In a next step, permanent parking spaces are planned in the city center.

This is to avoid carelessly parked scooters lying around on sidewalks.

For Christian Schuhegger, however, fixed parking spaces for the scooters are an exclusion criterion.

"I think it would be nice if Frankfurt stayed the way it is." Being able to park the scooter anywhere - "exactly where I want to go" - is important to him.

He always consciously parks in a place where either several e-scooters are already parked or where he does not disturb other road users.

Eugen Derzapf also says that the scooters have to be parked properly.

"When they're lying all over the place, it's annoying." He himself uses an e-scooter in downtown Frankfurt every week to get from home to work.

His own bike has a flat tire.

In addition, "I don't always want to pedal," says Derzapf.

Felix van den Dool is completing his e-scooter ride with his cell phone when he points out another disadvantage of cycling.

"You then have to take the bike with you everywhere." He particularly likes the spontaneity and flexibility that e-scooters offer.

He uses it to drive all the routes in the city center, the car is much too cumbersome here and the local public transport network is not well developed.

What to do with the small vehicles?

Frankfurt's Abdullah Rashwani agrees.

"When driving, I look for a parking space for half an hour in the city center on my own." Sometimes he also uses the e-scooter to get to an underground or suburban train station.

Rashwani no longer has an alternative to scooters.

Without the "sharing" providers, he would buy his own e-scooter.

"I've gotten used to it too much." Such private e-scooters also hiss across the Opernplatz.

Most of them are easy to spot - all in black, some with a bicycle basket.

Such a vehicle costs up to 900 euros.

For people who travel a lot for work, it's hardly worth it, says Rudolf Geyer from Munich;

he prefers to use local offers.

He has just come from lunch in downtown Frankfurt and is driving back to the office.

Google Maps shows him a route of 4,

8 kilometers, which according to the app takes 13 minutes.

He sits inside all day and now enjoys the fresh air, “mainly because the weather is right”.

The 30-minute walk there and back is too long for him.

Samantha Neoh is also in Frankfurt several times a month on business.

She comes from Singapore and then often uses the e-scooters.

She holds the scooter she has just rented between her legs.

She is just driving from the office back to the hotel;

a route that she now knows by heart.

“The scooter is simply more reliable than the train.” Moaz Rankoussi from Qatar explains that he likes to take the scooter for a spin to see the city.

From time to time he also replaces a taxi ride.

"I'm lazy too," he admits.

Nevertheless, everyone who comes to visit loves the e-scooters.

Most road users, including e-scooter drivers, have one thing in common: since the introduction of the so-called micro-vehicles more than three years ago, they have not really known what to do with them.

The e-scooter tempts to opportunism;

the general ignorance is quickly exploited and those who stand on the e-scooter often drive on sidewalks and cycle paths as it suits them.

The same rules apply to scooters as to cyclists: always cycle lanes, streets if necessary, never sidewalks.

And parking on the side.