The Braga Municipal Council has terminated contracts with shared electric scooter operators, giving companies 60 days to remove approximately 600 vehicles from the city streets. The decision, approved this week, marks Portugal's first complete municipal ban on shared scooters—a move driven by safety concerns, enforcement failures, and mounting pedestrian complaints.
Why This Matters:
• Safety crisis: Over 40 accidents involving scooters and bicycles have been recorded so far in 2026, most involving riders under 18 years old.
• Enforcement deadline: Operators including Bolt and Bird have until late August to remove all equipment or face forced removal with full costs passed to the companies.
• Regulatory vacuum: The suspension creates space for new rules—the municipality admits it lacks specific local legislation to manage the service effectively.
• National precedent: While Lisbon and Porto have tightened regulations, Braga becomes the first major Portuguese city to halt the service entirely.
From Pilot Project to Public Hazard
When Braga launched its shared scooter program eight years ago, the city deployed just 100 vehicles. The concept fit neatly into Portugal's broader push toward sustainable urban mobility, offering residents a low-emission alternative for short trips in the historic northern city.
That modest beginning has since exploded. The fleet now stands at nearly 600 scooters, and annual trips surged from 32,000 in 2023 to 63,000 in 2024, then to 144,000 in 2025. This exponential growth has overwhelmed both infrastructure and enforcement capacity, according to João Rodrigues, the city's mayor and a PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition representative.
"The reality is simple," Rodrigues told the municipal assembly. "Scooters have become more of a problem than an advantage for Braga. They make life harder for residents rather than easier."
The mayor cited a catalog of issues: scooters abandoned on sidewalks, blocking pedestrian crossings, obstructing building entrances, and creating hazards for parents with strollers and citizens with reduced mobility. The Portugal Public Security Police (PSP) in Braga has recorded accidents involving electric scooters this year, reflecting the broader safety concerns facing the city.
Regulatory Breakdown and Operator Responsibility
The council's decision hinges on what Rodrigues described as "constant disrespect" for existing usage norms. Under Portuguese national law, scooters classified as Personal Mobility Vehicles (VMP) must obey a 25 km/h speed limit, circulate in bike lanes or urban roads, and avoid sidewalks. Fines for violations can reach €500 in major cities.
But enforcement has proven elusive. The municipality argues that operators have failed to implement effective control, prevention, and mitigation mechanisms. Without real-time speed limiters in pedestrian zones, geo-fencing to prevent illegal parking, or robust age verification, the service has become a public order challenge.
The approved resolution explicitly references disturbances to road and pedestrian safety, environmental degradation of municipal public spaces, and the absence of specific municipal regulation that would allow immediate compatibility between commercial activity and local public interest.
Braga's action stands in stark contrast to approaches taken elsewhere in Portugal. Lisbon expanded no-go zones (including BUS lanes, gardens, and the iconic Avenida da Liberdade), imposed 20 km/h speed caps, and designated strict parking zones with financial penalties. The capital also plans to offer free scooter use for residents holding a Navegante public transport pass starting this year.
Porto, meanwhile, approved a cap of 900 vehicles per operator license and mandated nightly retrieval of scooters by 22:00. Circulation is banned in pedestrian areas, BUS corridors, and certain main roads. Faro introduced a public tender system for operator licenses, limiting deployments to 350 scooters and 100 bikes per license, valid for two years.
Coimbra operates under a pilot regime with 90 designated parking "hotspots" and over 100 more planned. The city created "Red Zones" around the historic center and university campus where scooters automatically slow and cannot end sessions—effectively preventing abandonment in sensitive areas.
What This Means for Residents
For the estimated thousands of Braga residents who made 144,000 scooter trips last year, the suspension means an abrupt loss of a mobility option. Students, tourists, and workers who relied on scooters for quick hops across the city will need to pivot to traditional public transport, bicycles, or walking.
But for pedestrians—particularly elderly residents, people with disabilities, and families navigating narrow sidewalks in Braga's medieval core—the removal could restore a measure of safety and dignity. A public petition launched in mid-June calling for the elimination of shared scooters gathered over 1,000 signatures in two weeks, reflecting grassroots frustration.
The petition argued that "the proliferation of rental electric scooters has created problems affecting safety, mobility, and quality of life," pointing to abandoned vehicles on walkways, crossings, and building entrances, plus dangerous riding behavior in pedestrian zones.
The municipality has made clear that the contract termination will incur no cost to public coffers. After the 60-day deadline expires in late August, any remaining scooters will be forcibly removed, with operators billed for towing and storage.
Political Divide and Data Disputes
The resolution passed with broad support but exposed political fissures. The Amar e Servir Braga (ASB) movement—holding three council seats—abstained, arguing that insufficient statistical data justified such a drastic step. ASB representatives insisted decisions should rest on "mathematical reality" rather than perceptions.
Rui Rocha, councilor for the Liberal Initiative (IL), voted in favor, citing the municipality's own admission of its "inability to promote safe use" as sufficient grounds for suspension.
The Socialist Party (PS) also backed the measure but proposed creating a broad working group to draft a new regulatory framework for the eventual return of shared mobility equipment under stricter controls.
Filipe Aguiar from Chega, a right-wing party that campaigned on banning shared scooters, declared that Braga would now be "a much safer city," framing the decision as a vindication of his party's platform.
Rodrigues emphasized that the suspension is not permanent. "This is a pause to evaluate, rethink, and regulate scooter use in the city," he said. "When it comes to privately owned scooters, the municipality can do little beyond enforcement. But for shared scooters, we can go much further in regulation."
The mayor acknowledged his own past support for the program—he helped introduce it as a city councilor years ago—but said the service must return "under different terms" if it returns at all.
Next Steps and National Implications
Braga's move represents a cautionary tale for Portugal's urban mobility ambitions. As cities across Europe race to decarbonize transport, shared micromobility has been hailed as a cornerstone of sustainable urban planning. Yet the Braga case underscores the friction between innovation and governance: without enforceable rules, adequate infrastructure, and operator accountability, convenience can quickly devolve into chaos.
The municipality now faces the task of drafting a comprehensive regulatory framework that balances soft mobility promotion with pedestrian safety, accessibility, and public space quality. Whether operators will agree to return under stricter licensing, fleet caps, mandatory parking zones, and real-time compliance monitoring remains uncertain.
For residents, the immediate future is clear: by the end of August, Braga's streets will be scooter-free for the first time in nearly a decade. Whether that proves a temporary reprieve or a permanent shift will depend on the municipality's ability to craft rules that other Portuguese cities have managed—and on whether operators see value in a smaller, more controlled market.
In the meantime, Braga's decision sends a signal to other municipalities grappling with similar tensions: when safety data, resident complaints, and enforcement capacity all point in the same direction, the political calculus may favor hitting the pause button—even on a service that thousands use daily.
