Rota has expressed its disappointment at the announcement of an outright ban on rental e-scooters from next March.

Rota questioned whether banning rental e-scooters is truly the best way forward. “In the last 15 months, our country has lost most of the micro-mobility options available locally.”

Whilst acknowledging that the current rental e-scooter system is not perfect and has put pedestrians at risk, Rota said that it “attributes these flaws to a lack of political vision and unwillingness to regulate shared micro mobility.”

It pointed out that “without safe infrastructure, such as segregated lanes and dedicated drop-off points, most e-scooter users had no choice but to share pavements with pedestrians.”

Rota highlighted that “these issues reflect fundamental deficiencies in the local infrastructure, which historically has always prioritised cars at the expense of all other modes of transport, putting further pressure on the already limited public space.”

“This created a dangerous predicament for pedestrians, and as Rota, we strongly believe in the hierarchy of road users, safeguarding the most vulnerable,” it said.

Rota stated that “if we truly want pedestrian safety (and safety for all road users, for that matter), the authorities should focus on providing better infrastructure for all by building wider pavements, ensuring adequate street lighting and having frequent pedestrian crossings with dropped kerbs and revoking all illegally obtained driving licences.”

Rota also stressed that “for Malta to build the necessary infrastructure and deliver the cultural shift needed for rental e-scooters to be a welcome part of the transport system, government agencies must plan policies, implement regulatory frameworks and better enforcement to cater for it and to be able to control its abuse.”

“As a country we should be democratising and making better use of our limited public spaces. Initially, authorities promised dedicated e-scooter parking spots but these never actually materialised,” it said.

Rota added that, this is a tried and tested solution used in cities all over the world, which could have tackled the erratic parking problem straight away.

The NGO stated that, “due to the lack of political will to implement this solution, this exacerbated the already existing issues of accessibility of pavements and created a public nuisance which greatly affected the public’s perception of micro-mobility.

It warned that “by banning these convenient and clean modes of transportation, we believe that this a step in the wrong direction as this will come at the cost of many citizens who wish to diversify their travel beyond their private car and will greatly impact the country’s ability to encourage alternative and sustainable mobility.”

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