Prague City Hall Introduces New Bikesharing Regulations: Is This the End of E-Scooters?

The core of the proposal involves entering into private contracts with all operators of shared bikes (and scooters) in the city. These contracts would establish basic rules for renting and operating bikesharing systems. According to Deputy Mayor Hřib, the city plans to use these contracts to ban the rental of electric scooters, meaning only bicycles and e-bikes would be allowed for rental within the city.

Hřib: E-scooters have turned from a form of eco-friendly transport into mere tourist attractions

The proposed regulation follows a recommendation unanimously supported by the Ministries of the Interior, Transport, and Labor & Trade. Hřib noted that in the Czech context, it’s unique for three ministries to agree on a single recommended approach.

This approach involves granting a special permit for the use of public spaces, which would be issued by the Prague City Council to TSK. Based on this permit, TSK would then contractually provide access to these public spaces to bikesharing operators.

The regulation applies to areas managed by Prague City Hall, which includes most public spaces in the city center. Additionally, it was announced that individual city districts would be invited to join the system and include public areas under their management.

Goal of the reform

The goal of the planned contract-based system is to remove shared e-scooters from Prague’s streets. City officials consider them the main cause of problems related to shared transportation in the city center. Riding e-scooters won’t be banned outright, but if someone wants to operate a shared e-scooter service, they will have to establish their own private areas for renting them out. City Hall believes this will be unfeasible and expects the measure to effectively end shared e-scooter services on public streets.

E-scooters involved in significantly more accidents than bikes in the city center

The city backs up its stance with data. TSK Director Filip Hájek stated that e-scooters are involved in up to twice as many infractions as bikes in the city center, and nearly five times more fines are issued to e-scooter users. While this could partly be due to differences in law enforcement focus, even looking just at accidents, e-scooters clearly dominate: In 2024, there were 47 e-scooter accidents in central Prague, compared to just 2 involving bicycles or e-bikes. One of the e-scooter accidents was fatal.

Besides banning e-scooters, the city also aims to regulate parking strictly to designated parking spots. These spots will be standardized and clearly marked across Prague, with plans for further expansion.

The contract will also include a fee for using public space, likely set at 25 CZK per bike per month. TSK is prepared to enforce fines for improper parking – the proposed fine is 100 CZK for a first offense, increasing up to 1000 CZK for repeated violations.

Contracts instead of memorandums

A standard part of the contract will be the city gaining access to data on bikesharing usage. This should, in the future, lead to automatic monitoring of illegal parking. The city also plans to keep the system open to anyone willing to sign a contract with the city, rather than being tied to specific operators. New contracts will thus also be signed by Rekola and Nextbike, companies currently operating a subsidized system integrated with the PID Lítačka app. For them, the biggest changes will be the requirement to pay for the use of parking spaces and stricter penalties for improper parking.

Improperly parked bikes, as well as shared bikes operated without a city contract, are to be removed from the streets by TSK. The city does not expect anyone to deploy scooters or bikes without a contract, but this year will include a transitional period during which operators can adapt their systems—for example, by removing all e-scooters and potentially replacing them with e-bikes.

Until now, informal memorandums and agreements have governed bikesharing. These will be replaced by clear, contractual relationships. The city expects that e-scooter operators are not fully in favor of the system but will ultimately adapt—just as they have in other cities where similar regulations enjoyed political and public consensus.

Marek Pazderka, Micro-Mobility Operations Manager for the Czech Republic at Bolt, commented on the preparations for new contracts with the city for Městem na kole: „Together with other providers, we are currently fine-tuning new rules for shared bike and scooter operations with the City of Prague and the Technical Road Administration. The goal is to establish a unified framework that brings greater clarity while taking into account the specific nature of locations like the historic center—whether in terms of parking or movement of micro-mobility vehicles. We believe the final version of the agreement will be ready in the coming weeks.“

Implementation timeline

Deputy Mayor Hřib expects that the City Council could delegate the management of public spaces for the purpose of signing bikesharing contracts to TSK as early as May. Afterward, TSK could begin signing contracts with individual operators, and the new rules could start to be implemented in the second half of the year.

New rules will take effect this year

The new system is intended to affect only commercial activities. It will not restrict the use of private e-scooters or bicycles by Prague residents. Deputy Mayor Hřib criticized the recent proposal from Prague 1 to impose a general ban on scooters as ill-considered. He pointed out that shared e-scooters, originally promoted as a sustainable mobility option, have become little more than tourist attractions with various negative side effects—and that this needs to end.

We have also requested a comment on the proposed measures from representatives of Prague 1, which has long sought a ban on shared e-scooters. If we receive a response, we will update this article accordingly.