Electric scooters — whether folded or not — are to be banned on all public transport operated under a contract with the National Transport Authority, including Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Go-Ahead Ireland, Irish Rail, and Luas.
A statement from the National Transport Authority (NTA) said the restriction will take effect in early October and apply to e-scooters, but not e-bikes or mobility scooters. The authority said that it follows similar moves in Berlin, Barcelona, and the UK.
An NTA review, the results of which were published on their website, outlines that in many jurisdictions, e-scooters are differentiated from other electric mobility devices, such as e-bikes, because of the different levels of risk. It said: “This is because there is a growing level of evidence that there is a greater risk of fire or explosion of components of e-scooters when compared to other PPTs. “
The extra risk from scooters, the NTA said, is mainly due to two factors — “That the position of the batteries at the bottom of the e-scooter platform makes them more prone to physical damage than in the case of e-bikes where the batteries are usually positioned in a less vulnerable location; and the quality control of e-scooter manufacturing does not appear to be as mature and developed as e-bikes.”
A statement issued this afternoon by the authority said: “The restriction will take effect in early October. It will apply to e-scooters but not e-bikes or mobility scooters. E-scooters are a relatively new product and were unregulated in Ireland until earlier this year. The quality control of their construction is therefore not as mature or well developed as e-bikes and mobility scooters, which have been regulated for longer. The tested batteries of e-bikes and mobility scooters do not pose the same level of risk.
The NTA statement added: “The guidance is prompted by safety concerns in relation to many lithium-ion batteries which are commonplace in such devices. These batteries are known to develop internal faults, leading to overheating and combustion. This has resulted in recent fires and thick black smoke on board public transport in Madrid and Barcelona.”
The NTA review also outlined that the ban is “subject to periodic review” by it and the transport operators.
The authority said: “It is recognised that new regulations made under the Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023 have been recently introduced, which sets out certain minimum technical standards in relation to PPTs including e-scooters. Accordingly, it is intended that the above guidance will be periodically reviewed by the NTA and the transport operators, to assess whether the introduction of the new regulations, or other developments in this area, has reduced the potential fire risk associated with these devices to the extent that would enable the introductions of e-scooters carriage on public transport.”
This has been expected for a while now
This seems OTT. I mean if this is a significant issue should they not be banned altogether? They are after all stored in homes, offices, public buildings etc….
This is ridiculous, if some brands present a problem they should ban those from being sold and confiscate them if found being used. I have a Ninebot for the last 5 years, no issues at all, I use it to travel to the commuter train every day, which is about 2km, if they ban scooters on the train how am I going to travel now? Am I going to have to wake up half an hour earlier and walk? There are more people on the train with scooters, some with kids, this measure is clearly coming from people who don’t use public transport.
Maybe they should make it so that it’s illegal to travel on public transportation with an unregistered e-scooter. Registered e-scooters will
a. have their battery in the neck of the thing instead of the head
b. meet quality standards as per an inspection
Quite discriminatory against ALL e-scooters. As Filipe says ban the problematic ones at source – stop their import.
This is an absolute over-reaction. A blanket ban that does not discriminate between types, brands, quality control, or production standards. It seems like the laziest option of “Ban them all”.
In terms of commuter impact it is absolutely catastrophic. Taking into account:
– Most companies insisting on returning to the office
– Dublin now having a huge commuter belt spanning to Meath and Kildare
– City centre transport leaving a lot to be desired
The e-scooters were a no-brainer since we can travel to and from the train stations and to our workplace location.
This reatriction will add housands of hours of commuting time yearly. This is time we could be spending with our families or contributing to the economy.
We urge the government to reconsider this blanket ban.
My nephew, as a grad, started into a new job in the city centre up 4-courts way, and to assist him in getting from the home to the Dart to work, my brother bought him an escooter about 2 months ago. What a waste of a multimodal opportunity.
There are dozens of very suspect chipped e-bikes on our roads and in our parks, with equally many fold-down e-bikes of dubious provinence being used on PT, yet these are given a pass. Utterly ridiculous.
Tighten up the sale of these machines, and enforce the law. If they are such a risk, then they shouldn’t be in people’s homes or on our roads either.