Shared bicycle and scooter hire firm Lime has removed all of its 6,000 vehicles from the streets of Brussels, after its licence expired and a request to extend it was refused.In 2023, the Brussels government decided to cap the number of shared scooters available in the Brussels region at 8,000 - down from 20,000 - introducing compulsory “drop zones” for the vehicles following complaints about haphazard parking and blocking of pavements.At the time, the capital had 20 scooters per 1,000 inhabitants - while in Paris, for example, the figure is five scooters per 1,000.Bolt, Dott and Voi were selected to be the capital’s only scooter hire firms. Lime challenged the decision in court and obtained a temporary reprieve in early 2024, with the Council of State ruling that the firm could continue operating for the remainder of its licence, which expired this week.The firm had asked the Council of State for an emergency ruling allowing it to keep operating, but this was refused.Lime said its retreat from the Brussels mobility market was temporary. While access to the Lime app in Brussels is now disabled, it hopes to resume soon.The Council of State still has to make a ruling on whether the Brussels government followed correct procedures when it decided which scooter hire firms to retain.“The Council of State has not yet resolved the case in depth. We are standing firm,” Lime said in a statement.According to Lime, if the court rules that the selection procedure was flawed, the scooter hire firm could be entitled to claim damages from the Brussels government."In our opinion, there is a lot wrong with the quality of the regulation and the transparency of the selection procedure,” a Lime spokeswoman said."Based on the four interim reports we have received, we are already in a strong position. Both the regulations and the tender procedure and decision for the operators show serious irregularities and are in danger of being considered illegal."It is regrettable that the Brussels region did not come up with an interim solution, because if the Council of State decides in our favour, we will have to claim for damages."It is not yet known when the Council of State’s verdict will be delivered.Brussels mobility minister Elke Van den Brandt said: “All companies in the sector have long publicly defended the need for a clear and fair regulatory framework for micromobility.“It would be disappointing if one of the non-selected operators were to disregard the rules of the game and behave like a sore loser.”
^ Mbin copied the text of that article into the body. I went along with it because Bulletin is a relatively defensive website. Works over tor but apparently after lots of delays and snags. Would be nice if mbin could preserve the paragraph breaks.
Anyway, I hate the damn things. These e-scooters clusterfuck bicycle racks. Shared e-scooters don’t need to be locked to a rack yet they block bicycles from the racks. I picked one of them up and tossed it. It bounced off another one back to me and landed on my foot, which took weeks to heal. So indeed, I hate the damn things.
The Council of State still has to make a ruling on whether the Brussels government followed correct procedures when it decided which scooter hire firms to retain.
Interesting that there is a selection process. Competition is fierce yet all the apps are jailed in Google’s Playstore, and closed-source. Considering the scooters are a public nuissance, in the very least they should be open to the public – not just patrons of Apple and Google. The Brussels gov could easily make FOSS apps a criteria for the scooter apps considering how motivated Lime seems to be.