Doubts about Amsterdam's plans to expand scooter-sharing

The municipality of Amsterdam wants to significantly increase the number of shared scooters to achieve a better distribution of these vehicles in the city. The municipality hopes that easy access to these vehicles will encourage more people to refrain from owning their own cars. But not everyone in the city council is convinced about the plan, AT5 reports.

Amsterdam currently counts 770 shared scooters. The municipality wants to increase that to 1,200. According to traffic alderman Melanie van der Horst, many people use scooter-sharing to replace short car rides, and that is something the city wants to encourage.

“In addition, we see that the use of a shared scooter is common for many young people. They grow up with shared transport, and the chance is, therefore, greater that they will not purchase a private vehicle themselves but will use shared cars,” Van der Horst said.

GroenLinks city councilor Elisabeth IJmker has some doubts. “The promise of the shared scooter is that it would replace the car, but what we see in Amsterdam is that it replaces the bicycle and public transport.” For its climate and liveability goals, Amsterdam wants more people to use the bike or public transport to get around, not less.

Van der Horst wants more scooter-sharing to also offer better coverage in areas like Nieuw-West, Zuidoost, and Noord. But according to IJmker, that is not guaranteed. “We cannot ask the provider: place a minimum number in Zuidoost.”

She also thinks that shared scooters have a “significant impact” on public space in the city, given people’s habits of just leaving them on the street instead of neatly parking them.

VVD councilor Stijn Nijssen supports the plan, provided measures are in place to ensure people park the scooters neatly and don’t use alcohol when driving. “Fortunately, all kinds of conditions are now also being set, and that also includes three warnings and blocking your account, handing out fines,” he said to the broadcaster.

The city council will discuss the expansion plans on Wednesday.