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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Warsaw has launched special joint patrols by its municipal police and roads authority to check whether electric scooters are being parked legally and in keeping with rules introduced under a recent agreement with rental firms.
According to the city’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, more than 140 improperly parked scooters have been towed away within just a few days. Under the agreement, their operators now face potential fines.
Nie ma miejsca dla hulajnóg tam, gdzie nie ich miejsce.
Zdecydowałem o uruchomieniu specjalnych patroli Straży Miejskiej i ZDM. W ciągu ostatnich kliku dni dzięki ich pracy odholowanych zostało ponad 140 nieprawidłowo zaparkowanych hulajnóg elektrycznych. Taką możliwość daje… pic.twitter.com/U5fd7YDN8U
— Rafał Trzaskowski (@trzaskowski_) September 16, 2026
“There’s no place for scooters where they don’t belong,” Trzaskowski said in a social media post announcing the patrols. “There are specific provisions, agreements and legal regulations – and action is being taken. No leniency.”
An agreement reached between the city and three scooter operators – Bolt, Dott and Lime – in May expanded the number of streets where the vehicles are subject to a maximum speed of 12 km/h (7.5 mph) and increased the areas where their use is entirely prohibited.
It also introduced measures to prevent scooters from being left in places where parking is illegal. Riding and parking electric scooters was banned in several areas of Warsaw, including popular tourist attractions such as the Old Town, Krasiński Garden and Łazienki Park.
Trzaskowski added that the city has now expanded the list of areas covered by the ban, as permitted under the agreement. He did not, however, provide the new list.
The agreement requires operators to programme their scooters so they cannot enter areas where riding is prohibited or be parked in places where parking is illegal, including on bridges, in tunnels, in residential areas and on streets where the pavement is too narrow to allow legal parking.
Operators can be fined when scooters are left in violation of the rules.
The city says that, despite electric scooters accounting for just under 8% of all traffic on cycle lanes, their riders were found to be responsible for 39 of the 66 accidents recorded on cycle lanes last year. Those accidents resulted in 73 injuries.
Concerns over the safety of electric scooters have also prompted the national government to introduce stricter rules, including a nationwide requirement for children under 16 to wear a bicycle helmet when riding bicycles and electric scooters, which took effect in early June.
Poland first introduced regulations governing electric scooters in 2021, formally setting out rules for their use. Under those rules, scooters are generally required to use cycle lanes where available, with their maximum speed capped at 20 km/h.
The Polish government has moved to introduce new rules on the use of electric scooters.
E-scooters, which are currently unregulated in Poland, have been blamed for hundreds of accidents annually, with half of victims being pedestrians hit by riders https://t.co/TcrfPQocfr
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 3, 2021
Under the nationwide legislation, electric scooters must be parked parallel to the outer edge of the pavement, and municipal authorities have the power to penalise those responsible for improper parking – a provision that primarily affects rental companies.
A year after the legislation was introduced, after the first report on e-scooter-related accidents showed that they had caused hundreds of injuries and three deaths in 2021, Poland’s police launched a campaign publicising the new rules.
At national level, infrastructure minister Dariusz Klimczak has announced further restrictions the government is working on, including a new law requiring scooters to be collected and left only in specially designated zones.
The police have launched a campaign on the legal requirements for using e-scooters, including a warning that riding or parking them on pavements can be illegal.
In 2022, accidents involving e-scooters in Poland resulted in 421 injuries and three deaths https://t.co/dMOBiNUBNG
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 15, 2023
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Dmitry Korkhau/Unsplash
Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.
