Lisbon's familiar line-up of rental scooters is on its way out. Mayor Carlos Moedas announced that shared e-scooters will be suspended across the Portuguese capital, blaming dangerous riding, wrong-way cycling, a rising accident toll and the sheer mess of abandoned vehicles clogging pavements. Operators have been given 60 days to clear their fleets from the streets, though an exact start date for the ban hasn't been set.
The numbers behind the decision are stark. More than 1,200 badly parked or dumped scooters are collected from Lisbon's streets every month, according to the mayor. Nationally, the Automóvel Club de Portugal counted 1,369 scooter accidents in 2024, leaving 58 people seriously injured and three dead, and the trend has continued upward with 623 accidents recorded in just the first four months of 2025. A 15-year-old boy died in September after a scooter accident in Lousada, in northern Portugal, adding to public pressure. Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Setúbal are the districts seeing the most incidents.
Lisbon isn't acting alone. Braga council suspended shared scooters back in June after its own spike in accidents, with the same 60-day deadline for operators. Meanwhile the companies involved — Bolt, Lime and Bird — have pushed back, saying they've complied with local rules and introduced parking measures, and that safety problems are better solved with dedicated parking bays, enforcement and improved infrastructure rather than outright bans.
For visitors, the practical effect is that a transport option many relied on for quick hops between Lisbon's hills, miradouros and riverside walkways will gradually disappear over the coming weeks. If you're arriving after the removal deadline, plan on walking, the metro, trams, buses, the funiculars, or ride-hailing and taxis instead. The city's famous elevators and trams cover a lot of the hilly ground scooters were popular for, and much of the central Baixa-Chiado area is easily walkable.
Anyone who has already booked a scooter app or rented through a hotel concierge should check whether the service is still running before counting on it. Note that the suspension applies to shared rental fleets — privately owned e-scooters remain a different matter, though the same traffic rules apply to riders.
It's also worth watching how this unfolds. Lisbon has been a bellwether for how European cities manage micromobility, and further details of what replaces the current system — possibly designated parking or stricter operator rules — haven't been announced yet. If you're travelling with kids or are nervous about scooter traffic on narrow pavements, the change will likely make central Lisbon feel calmer and easier to navigate on foot.
