Electric scooters permanently banned from public transport in Barcelona
Metropolitan Transport Authority cites lack of "sufficient guarantees" that batteries will not catch fire
Electric scooters are to be banned permanently from public transport in the Greater Barcelona area.
A temporary ban in place since February was set to expire at the end of October, but the board of directors of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) voted on Friday to make the ban definitive.
The ATM believes there are "insufficient safeguards" regarding the safety of electric scooter batteries.
In a statement, they said that the impact of a battery igniting "can be very high," especially considering the high density of travelers at certain times.
The vote was a proposal from the group of experts that analyzed the risks of electric scooters, which were first banned after a scooter caught fire on an FGC train near Sant Boi de Llobregat station, injuring three people.
The initial six-month ban had already been extended once.
With the ATM ratifying the experts' proposal on Friday, the final regulation will prohibit electric scooters from being brought onto public transport.
The ATM board outlined how they examined alternative measures, such as limiting the number of electric scooters, or the maximum size, but were not able to establish a scenario where the risk factor would not remain "very high."
Friday's decision comes after a train in Madrid caught fire on Tuesday due to an electric scooter. The carriage was damaged, although there were no injuries.
Users can be fined €200 for infringing the ban. Similar bans on buses have also been adopted by authorities in towns and cities such as Girona, Tarragona, Lleida and Sitges.
The ATM has urged all public transport operators to encourage electric scooter parking near stations.