In the Capital of Finland Helsinki, the local electric scooter shared fleet operators are asking for the city and government to regulate and set laws for their services. The call comes as the city has had the usual issues that poorly regulated pilot programs usually do: too many scooters in the wrong places end up being a nuisance. 

Again, the issue is nothing new as pretty much all pilot programs we have discussed in earlier blogs have had the same issue, and everyone who lives in a city knows how it goes. Last week it was big news that tourists had caused damage to the Spanish steps in Rome.

Even the electric scooter fleet companies know these issues very well and they recognize that it’s not feasible for their businesses either if the problems continue to perpetuity, that’s why the companies like Tier, Voi, Bird and Dott are asking for legislation themselves.

The main regulation involves licensing model that’s used in many cities in Europe and elsewhere already. Licensing operators would limit the number of operators and the number of scooters on the roads.

How it would operate is to have the city decide what level of service they need and then sell the licenses in a public auction. Basically, the same feature as other public services like 5G licenses works for mobile phone network operators.

Companies mentioned that this model has already been used in Oslo, Copenhagen, London, and Paris in Europe. As we have followed the markets for a long time we can say that the same model seems to be successful in cities outside Europe as well.

But why regulation? Why not voluntary agreements if companies themselves support the idea? Interestingly the companies said that cities are not currently equipped to regulate the activities of electric scooter companies but they still ask for regulation as the self-governing option for companies have nothing to enforce them to follow their own rules.

The markets are already very congested, even in a city the size of Helsinki (2016 – population 631,000)  has 4 major operators which cause problems and isn’t good for the reputation of the companies themselves.

Licensing model would not only limit the number of scooters but also regulation for parking and security. Some of those regulations would include:

1. Companies have to move an unused scooter within a day, a parking patrol, and requiring the user to take a picture of the scooter at the end of the ride.
2. Alcohol limits
3. In addition, the City of Helsinki has already tightened the use of escooter by for example turning them off in parking lot areas.

In the meantime companies, themselves have already decided to address some issues themselves.

We at Langfeite support these notions as we are convinced that micromobility is the way of the future it’s just a matter of setting the rules so that everyone can enjoy fun, green and convenient transportation safely and without it causing hindrances in our daily lives.