Paris Says E-Scooter Riders Must Now Wear Helmets and Bright Vests
Paris police now require anyone riding an e-scooter on public roads to wear an approved helmet and a high-visibility vest — the kind of bright, reflective clothing that makes you easy to spot in the dark. The new rule comes after a sharp rise in serious and fatal accidents. Riders caught without a helmet face a fine of €135 (£129), while those missing a vest or reflective gear face €35 (£30). The rules also apply to electric unicycles and hoverboards.
The numbers behind the decision are stark. Some 79 people were killed in e-scooter accidents across France last year, up from 45 the year before, according to police citing France's road safety watchdog. In Paris alone, around 1,100 people were injured in e-scooter accidents last year, a 33% rise on the prior year. These figures cover privately owned scooters, the only kind still legal on Paris streets. The city banned rental e-scooters in 2023 after a vote in which 90% of participants backed a ban, though only 8% of eligible voters took part.
That rental ban, however, did not cover the much larger group of people who own their own scooters. France has the highest number of private e-scooter owners in Europe: about 2.5 million people as of 2023. With rental scooters gone but private use growing, accidents kept rising, and police decided to extend the helmet and vest rules to the capital.
Paris already had some rules in place. E-scooter riding is banned for children under 14, carrying passengers is not allowed, and the top speed is set at 25km/h (16mph). Several other French regions, including Seine-et-Marne, Alpes-Maritimes, and Vaucluse, already required helmets and vests. The difference is scale — Paris has far more riders than anywhere else, so enforcing the rules there will be the biggest test of whether mandatory gear can actually change how people behave across a whole city.
The broader context is that cities across Europe have been struggling to fit personal electric vehicles onto streets built for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars. Paris has acted more aggressively than most. The 2023 rental ban signalled that the city had lost patience with the problems rental scooters caused, from cluttered pavements to careless riding by occasional users. But the fact that deaths nearly doubled nationally in a single year, even after rental scooters disappeared from Paris, suggests the safety problem goes beyond rental companies. Private owners, who likely ride more often and know their scooters better, are also part of the casualty count.
Regulators across the EU will be watching to see whether fines for missing a helmet or vest can actually reduce injuries, or whether the real problem lies in how streets are designed, how fast scooters go, and the fact that lightweight electric vehicles share the road with much heavier cars and trucks. The two fines are set at different levels for a reason. The €135 helmet fine matches what you would pay for not wearing a seatbelt in a car or a helmet on a motorcycle, showing that police see e-scooter head injuries as just as serious. The €35 vest fine is lighter, closer to what you might be fined for a pedestrian-visibility issue.
For city authorities, the enforcement challenge is significant. Rental scooters can be controlled remotely — operators can limit where they go, cap their speed, or shut them off entirely. Private scooters cannot. They vary widely in type and are spread across millions of homes, so compliance will come down to individual choices and whether police are visibly present. Whether these fines are enough to change the habits of 2.5 million owners across France is the open question, and other capitals considering similar rules will be looking to Paris for the answer.
