Belgian e-mobility legislation is not standing still. To use an electric scooter, you don’t need a driver’s license, but that doesn’t mean, of course, that as a rider you shouldn’t follow the highway code.
Because the scooter is not considered a motor vehicle, family insurance is sufficient to cover your liability. The prerequisite is that the electric scooter cannot travel autonomously faster than 25 kilometers per hour.
New rules as of July 1, 2022
Electric scooter banned for under-16s
For safety reasons, children or young teenagers are no longer allowed to ride electric scooters in traffic. From now on, the minimum age is 16. Although there are exceptions. For example, rules for electric scooters may vary in specific places such as in (residential) yards, play streets or pedestrian zones or on the shoreline.
Where are you allowed to ride an electric scooter ?
Electric scooters are now prohibited on the sidewalk. Users of electric scooters are equated with cyclists. So you are only allowed to ride in the bike lane. In the absence of bike lanes, you have to ride on the roadway. In pedestrian zones, traffic signs indicate whether cyclists (and thus electric scooters) are allowed or not. When prohibited, you must proceed at walking pace.
Finally, it is forbidden to ride an electric scooter in railway stations or public buildings. Riding in the prohibited direction of one-way streets is allowed if a traffic sign also allows this for bicyclists.
Carrying passengers is now prohibited
The risk of falls and injuries is high if two people ride an electric scooter. Thus, riding two on an electric scooter is prohibited. This is nothing new. By the way, this applies to all propulsion devices, including non-motorized ones.
Electric scooter maximum speed
The maximum permitted speed of an electric scooter is 25 km/h. Higher speeds are allowed only on private property.
Parking an electric scooter
Leaving electric scooters just randomly on public roads is inconvenient and even dangerous to some extent. There will be specific parking zones for electric scooters. No-parking zones also exist. Both zones are clearly shown by traffic signs. In places without specific directions, parking on the sidewalk remains parking on the side, provided your e-step does not obstruct passage.
No driver’s license required
To use an electric scooter on public roads, you do not need a driver’s license. You must, of course, follow the highway code.
Safety
Wearing a bicycle helmet is not mandatory but is strongly recommended. Riding under the influence of alcohol is obviously prohibited. On that front, electric scooter users are subject to the same regulations as car drivers.
Nor is it allowed to scooter with a smartphone in your hands. In addition, between sunrise and sunset when visibility is limited to 200m, it is mandatory to wear a white or yellow light on the front and a red taillight. If the e-step is not equipped with lighting, it may also be attached to the clothing, backpack or helmet.
Electric scooter with saddle
An electric scooter with a saddle on is prohibited on public roads unless the e-step can be registered and insured as a moped class A and if the e-step cannot travel faster than 25 km/h.
An electric scooter with a saddle and a maximum speed of 25 km/h must ride on the bike path. The other rules for mopeds also apply to electric scooters with saddles:
- A helmet is mandatory on an electric scooter with a saddle.
- The lights of the electric scooter must always be on, even during the day.
- You must also be in possession of all legal documents
Belgian e-mobility legislation is not standing still.
It was recently included that propulsion devices or e-steps must now also be equipped with white colored reflectors along both sides before they are allowed to enter the roadway. For countries such as the Netherlands and Luxembourg, this rule does not currently apply.
At Mobile Future, of course, you can find white-colored adhesive reflectors.
Links with information about electric scooters :
