Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

More electric vehicles and stringent regulations to ensure safety and decorum on roads and pavements

Milan, October 26 2019 – Milan encourages the development of electric and shared mobility and, having defined clear rules for the use of sharing vehicles, publishes three tenders on the Municipality website which allow fleet managers of electric micromobility vehicles, scooters and free-flow bicycles to activate the service and make new shared fleets available to citizens in the Milan area; from Tuesday 29 October it will be possible to submit expressions of interest. 

In particular, the sharing of innovative electric vehicles such as scooters, hoverboards, Segways, monowheels by companies and interested parties can be started experimentally and within a system of stringent rules. Instead, the fleets of free-flow mechanical and electric pedal-assisted bicycles and electric scooters will be strengthened.

Sharing mobility has favored the use of public transport and contributed to the decrease in private vehicles in favor of the quality of mobility and the environment. Vehicle sharing allows you to reduce the rate of motorisation in the city. The experiments launched some time ago in Milan with diversified fleets of cars, cargo vehicles, scooters and bicycles have given very positive results and the objective of containing polluting emissions pushes us to proceed towards innovation, which is why the administration aims to develop the service .

“Milan sharing mobility has proven to be efficient and with these tenders we are renewing existing services and making them even more sustainable thanks to the strengthening of electric fleets - declares Marco Granelli, councilor for Mobility and Public Works -. The experience gained to date teaches us that stringent rules are one of the keys to the success of shared mobility, which is why we have designed a framework of rules that allows us to start and govern the experimentation of sharing even innovative vehicles. For success to continue, without penalizing citizens and without creating situations of insecurity or degradation, managers and users must respect the existing rules which are clear and sufficient, starting from the highway code, with a lot of common sense and respect". 

The newly published tender foresees a maximum number of 2 thousand electric microvehicles in the city and identifies 26 July 2021 as the deadline for the experimentation. All vehicles must be homologated, equipped with lights, identification number and speed limiters and must be kept in perfect conditions of efficiency and safety for the user. Scooters and the like may park exclusively in the parking spaces dedicated to bicycles or on the side of the road, where it is not expressly prohibited and in any case always in accordance with the rules of the highway code. In the Cerchia dei Navigli, where there is no free parking, scooters will be able to activate and close the rental only in one of the over 4.300 bicycle parking stalls through technological systems created by the management companies. Please note that currently in Milan there are over 32 thousand bicycle parking stalls throughout the city, of which there are 6.900 outside Municipality 1 and located in the areas adjacent to the metro stops and 3.350 along the cycle paths. Bike stalls are growing continuously due to new installations which also take into account the introduction of new vehicles.

As regards free-flow shared bicycles, the new guidelines provide for another three years of experimentation and an expansion of the total fleet present in the city up to 16 thousand vehicles and among these there are also pedal-assisted electric bicycles. As regards scooters, with the new tender the authorization to carry out the service is for eight years and from 1 January 2020 there will only be electric scooters (today the existing fleets number around 1.470 vehicles divided between five operators). 

The public notice for sharing will have monthly time windows. The manager must present certification of subscription to an adequate insurance policy, guarantee that the service is active 365 days a year and available 24 hours a day, that there is a call centre, an emergency response service and device control with ready staff to remove or move them within 24 hours of reporting in the event of poor service, abandonment or irregular parking, under penalty of removal by the Municipality with penalties charged to the manager. In case of serious non-compliance the Administration reserves the right of revocation. Each manager of sharing services with microvehicles can submit proposals involving a minimum of 24 devices up to a maximum of 500. Bicycle managers can submit fleets ranging from 750 to 1.000 vehicles. Each scooter sharing manager must guarantee at least 4.000 vehicles that can be put into service gradually over a period of six months as long as the minimum density of three vehicles per square kilometer is respected. Each scooter must be equipped with helmets and balaclavas.

For each scooter or bicycle on the street, the managers will have to invest 10 euros per year in communication and information to users on the rules of use and the highway code, also in a shared form with the Administration and the other managers and 100 euros per year for each scooter. Furthermore, for each electric scooter and bicycle it will be necessary to deposit a one-off deposit (in the form of a surety) of 25 euros or 50 euros for each scooter, to guarantee any removal interventions carried out by the Administration and a contribution will have to be paid to the Municipality of 8 euros for each scooter or bicycle as a contribution to the use of public spaces. The contribution drops to 3 euros for electric bicycles in order to encourage their introduction.

The notices are published on the website of the Municipality of Milan at link