From 12 Noon on 31 December until 9am on 1 January it is forbidden to ride an e-scooter anywhere in the Brussels-Capital Region. The regional authorities decided to issue the New Year’s Eve ban on e-scooters in the capital 2 weeks ago.
The ban applies to both privately owned e-scooters and shared e-scooters that can be hired using an app. The companies that provide shared e-scooter services in Brussels have also been ordered to remove their e-scooters from certain areas in the Brussels-Capital Region for the duration of the ban.
The regional government hopes that the ban will take some pressure off the emergency services that are already overburdened on New Year's Eve. In addition to accidents involving e-scooters, in the past the scooters have been used to block roads to deny the emergency services and the police access to deal with incidents. Last year they were also used as projectiles to throw at police officers, firefighters and ambulance crews.