Dangerous and annoying or easy and relaxing? Spanish cities grapple with invasion of electric share scooters
Unlike schemes involving shared bicycles, these are dockless, leaving riders responsible for parking them out of the way ... but that doesn’t always happen
Cities across Spain are grappling with electric scooters that have popped up on pavements across the country, helping riders zip around but exasperating drivers and pedestrians.
In Madrid public opinion is divided over the hundreds of electric scooters which California-based start-up Lime – partly owned by ride-hailing Uber and Google parent company Alphabet – has made available since mid-August.
Unlike schemes involving shared bicycles that typically must be left in docking stations, the scooters are dockless, leaving riders responsible for parking them out of the way. The next rider can find the nearest scooter with a smartphone app, unlock it and use it for a fee.
Similar electric scooter sharing programmes have been introduced in other European cities including Paris, Vienna and Zurich.
In Madrid, Lime’s scooters – which have already been used over 100,000 times – are tolerated by the left-wing city hall, intent on reducing pollution.