E-scooters will probably no longer be available in Gelsenkirchen in the future. According to a court order, the scooters must be removed from the city area.
Gelsenkirchen – Now it’s official: There will probably be no more e-scooters in Gelsenkirchen (NRW) in the future. The administrative court decided this on Monday (April 15). This ends a dispute between the provider companies and the city of Gelsenkirchen. The city had required the operators to provide identification for e-scooter users. But they didn't want to go along with it and filed a complaint with the administrative court.
Gelsenkirchen bans e-scooters from the city area
The city of Gelsenkirchen had already decided in November 2023 in the Committee for Transport and Mobility Development that e-scooter rental companies should require proof of identity from their users. The reason for this was an increasing number of accidents caused by e-scooters that were parked improperly. In Gelsenkirchen, a man died in 2023 after falling over an e-scooter with his e-bike. The decision from Gelsenkirchen is so far unique in Germany.
The city is quite open to the concept of e-scooters, as wa.de reports. They serve as a “contribution to the implementation of the transport transition” and are therefore a supplement to public transport and an alternative to owning a car, according to the draft resolution from November.
But the problems eventually prevailed. It wasn't just the anger over the improperly parked scooters that the city complained about. There was also “abusive driving behavior,” according to the submission. As a result, there have been “recurring, sometimes serious, accidents with other road users” in the past. Such accidents increased sharply in the first half of 2023. This is also reflected in the increased number of police accidents, according to the city. In April 2023, a child was seriously injured in a collision with an e-scooter in Gelsenkirchen.
The problem: Anyone who causes an accident with an e-scooter or drives through the city center in violation of the regulations cannot be traced. Ultimately, the rental companies wanted to provide an offer that was as low-threshold as possible – an email address was enough for registration.
E-scooter providers are suing against the ban – the court rules in favor of the city
However, the city of Gelsenkirchen no longer wanted to accept this and asked the providers to require proof of identity from users, for example in the form of an ID card. When they failed to comply, the city terminated the cooperation agreement with the providers. They should remove e-scooters from the city area by April 1st.
The rental companies recently sued the administrative court in Gelsenkirchen about this - unsuccessfully, as it now appears. In its ruling, the court sees no reason why companies should be entitled to a so-called special use permit. This is an official permit that states that paths and roads may be used beyond their actual function as traffic routes, according to the Roads and Paths Act for North Rhine-Westphalia.
The court also argues that the e-scooter rental companies are not threatened with “unreasonable, irreversible disadvantages.” Financial losses alone are therefore not enough. “Imminent existential emergencies were not claimed,” the judgment states.
The court has decided that e-scooters must now be removed from public spaces. The operators can still lodge a complaint. If that happens, the Higher Administrative Court for North Rhine-Westphalia will be responsible.
(ebu)