In view of a planned increase in the fleet of rental e-bikes in Hamburg, the opposition in the Hamburg Parliament is calling on the red-green Senate to act. “It is unacceptable that the Senate is now creating further stumbling blocks with new rental e-bikes and then watching idly again,” said the chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, Dennis Thering, on Monday.
An uncontrolled business model is bad for the city, said the traffic expert of the left, Heike Sudmann. The commercial providers rely on being able to use footpaths and cycle paths free of charge and without restrictions. The e-scooters have already shown “that tripping hazards and littered paths are the result”.
On Sunday, the head of the SPD parliamentary group announced in the Eimsbüttel district assembly that two rental companies in Hamburg wanted to put a total of around 2,000 additional rental e-bikes on the streets, and in this context criticized the transport authority led by the Green coalition partner. “The traffic authority lacks a clear strategy for the sharing offers that could prevent uncontrolled growth without clear rules,” explained Gabor Gottlieb.
The SPD parliamentary group is also of the opinion “that all sharing services – whether car, bicycle or e-scooter – need a concession model in which the city determines how many vehicles per provider are in use,” said their traffic expert Ole Thorben Buschwachter.
The federal government must create the legal framework for this. “Because for the mobility turnaround, we need more vehicle sharing throughout the city in the long term. That’s why I’m assuming that the transport authority will also closely monitor the introduction of the new offer,” said Buschwachter.