Italy will require e-scooter riders to wear helmets and have insurance after crashes

Wednesday, Italy’s government passed a bill that will make people who ride e-scooters wear helmets and have insurance. The bill also includes tougher fines for illegal parking as part of a larger overhaul of the country’s highway code.

In recent years, more and more people in Italy have been using e-scooters, just like in other European countries. Of course, the boom has also led to more crashes and complaints from drivers and walkers about riders not following safety and parking rules.

“No more wild scooters,” Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said on social media. He also said that people who ride e-scooters will have to get license plates and won’t be able to ride them in bike paths, walking areas, or on roads that aren’t in cities.

In July, the national records office ISTAT said that the number of e-scooter-related injuries and deaths on the roads rose from 2,929 in 2022 to 3,365 in 2023, with 21 deaths.

E-scooters can’t be used in some other European countries either. After a vote, Paris, France’s city, banned rented two-wheeled electric cars last year. In September, Madrid also took away their licenses.

By a vote of 83 to 47, Italy’s Senate gave the new highway code its final OK.

As part of the change, the fines for driving while drunk or high will be harsher. People who leave animals on the road and cause accidents will also face up to seven years in prison.

The new rules were made after a lot of talks “with a common goal: reduce the carnage on Italian roads.” Salvini is the leader of the hard-right League party and the deputy prime minister.

E-scooters are popular with both locals and tourists in cities like Rome and Milan. People who support them say they are a cheap and pollution-free choice to public transportation and other ways to get around.

For rental company Bird in Italy, Giorgio Cappiello is in charge of institutional relations. He said that the change was “completely ideological” and that companies had reported no accidents on their cars in 2022 and 2023.