Rome suspends micromobility services after rule violations

The city of Rome has banned the use of Lime and Dott e-scooters and e-bikes on its streets after the companies failed to comply with guidelines on the distribution of the vehicles.

Under the rules set out in the city council’s micromobility tender, operators must distribute their vehicles throughout the city and meet certain “density thresholds,” including mandated numbers in the suburbs.

“The closure will last for seven days and does not involve the removal of vehicles from the area, but only their immobilization to prevent the rental of the vehicles,” said a spokesman for the city of Rome. Cities today.

“However, a possible renewed suspension would mean that the vehicles would be taken out of service for 30 days and removed from the area.”

Rome monitors the movement of each vehicle with attached geolocation devices that can verify that the established rules are being respected.

Penalties imposed

From June 1 to 7, Lime’s e-scooters were out of service across the city, while the bike-sharing service was suspended from June 8 to 14.

Sales of Dott e-bikes will be discontinued from June 15 to 21.

The city says the vehicles will not be physically removed from the streets, but will be “taken out of service to prevent their rental.”

Both operators also face fines: Lime must pay around 80,000 euros (85,849 US dollars) and Dott 15,000 euros.

In response to the suspension, a Lime spokesperson said: Cities today: “Lime is complying with the recent decision by the City of Rome to partially suspend e-scooter and e-bike service for two weeks. Unfortunately, this decision ultimately impacts our users – often local residents who use the service on a daily basis. These riders use Lime either as an alternative to private vehicles or as a complement to public transit and rely on us to get to work, school and around the city every day.

“Lime has been operating in Rome since 2020 and has been working closely with the city for years. We always put communication and awareness campaigns at the heart of our priorities so that all users respect parking and safety rules.”

A Dott spokesperson said: “It is important to distinguish between e-scooters and e-bikes, two fundamentally different services with very different usage data. In fact, the penalties for bike sharing do not surprise us at all, as both operators have been suspended. All companies operating bicycles in Rome have also had problems in the past.

“Over 30 percent of the bikes are used less than once every two days, especially in peripheral areas, so that the bike sharing offer is not financially viable in this context. We have reported the difficulties due to the low usage to the (city) administration, despite the disproportionately high logistical effort and the large number of vehicles required.

“Conversely, the higher usage rates allow the scooter service to cover operating costs. It is no coincidence that two of the three scooter operators can meet the required standards (and Dott is one of them), which shows that it is feasible to comply with the rules while working with the (city) administration to improve them in the future.”

Image: City of Rome