More French cities clamp down on electric scooters

A Unesco World Heritage town in southern France is the latest to consider tightening rules on electric scooters, giving police greater powers to intervene. 

The move follows complaints from residents in Albi (Tarn) of anti-social and dangerous behaviour from riders.

If implemented, Albi would join cities including Paris and Carcassonne in bringing in enforcement of tougher controls on the increasingly popular mode of transport. 

There are 2.5 million electric scooter users in France, according to data released in 2024 by the French Agency for Ecological Transition, ADEME. Men are by far the biggest users, making up 79% of private owners and 66% of people who ride rental scooters. 

The growth in popularity has seen an increase in accidents involving e-scooters. 

In its latest barometer in June 2025, France’s road safety authority Sécurité routière recorded 900 serious injuries related to e-scooters over the past 12 months, an increase of 28%. 

It noted that “numerous preventative actions are being carried out by prefectures” in a bid to tackle the issue.

The first national regulations governing e-scooters were introduced in 2020. They stated that all e-scooters must be fitted with front and back lights, brakes and a horn. The minimum age for riders was raised to 14 from 12 in 2023. 

Riders are prohibited from using e-scooters on pavements in France, unless the maire has authorised such use. People contravening the rules risk a €135 fine. 

Wearing a helmet is compulsory outside built-up areas, though only “strongly recommended” within urban areas.

Residents in Albi have complained that many riders continue to travel on pavements, and the town’s mayor is now considering issuing a decree on their use. 

“There’s a problem with scooters, it’s a real issue,” mayor Stéphanie Guiraud-Chaumeil told local media. 

The decree would go a step further than the ‘Street Charter’ issued in Albi in January, which included a best practice guide sent to residents and published on social media. It would provide new tools to give police power to intervene. 

Carcassonne issued a municipal decree in 2024 banning the use of e-scooters on pedestrianised streets in the city centre, as well as pavements and squares. It also reduced the speed limit to 10km/h in the centre. 

People can only park the scooters in designated areas. Riding in groups, and using headphones or phones while on the vehicles, is banned. 

Paris, too, has had a love-hate relationship with e-scooters since becoming one of the early adopters of rental models in 2018.

In April 2023, some 90% of Parisians who took part in a city council survey voted against for-hire e-scooters and they were subsequently banned. 

The town of Saint-Denis, in the suburbs of Paris, banned e-scooters in the pedestrianised centre in October 2025 following a “strong demand from pedestrians” according to the municipality. Anyone violating the new rules risks a €135 fine. 

On a national level, a bill was tabled by several MPs from the right-wing Les Républicains in September to tighten rules governing e-scooters. 

If passed, measures would include requiring all riders to wear a helmet, training young people in the rules of the road from the age of 14, and increasing the fine for non-compliance.