No more cluttered sidewalks. Prague will block the rental of electric scooters

Prague intends to block the rental of electric scooters from January 2026 by preventing their parking in all districts of the city. The decision on this matter was made by councilors on Monday.

The reason for this decision is long-term criticism from residents and authorities of entire districts of Prague, according to which poorly parked scooters disturb passers-by. Complaints were addressed to users, mainly tourists, who threatened pedestrians by driving dangerously on sidewalks.

The new regulatory system, which will come into force in January next year, provides for the conclusion of parking agreements in places designated by the city with entities offering shared cars and bicycles. However, Prague does not envisage signing such contracts with companies renting scooters. Thus, shared electric scooters will become unavailable in practice. If they appear somewhere, they can be removed for unauthorized parking. The new regulations will not affect owners of private scooters.

The precursor of changes regarding shared electric scooters is the Praha 1 district, which occupies the very historical center of the Czech capital. In 2023, it introduced a parking ban for these vehicles outside clearly marked parking spaces. A few weeks ago, electric scooters were banned from entering one of the streets, which is a tourist attraction. At the beginning of October this year. together with the elections to the Chamber of Deputies, Praha 1 held a referendum in which the majority supported efforts to limit or completely ban the use of electric scooters in the city center.

From Prague Piotr Górecki (PAP)

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