E-Scooters and bike sharing services are fast becoming an alternative to public transport and cars around the world. They can easily be found on pavements across European cities, waiting for their next passenger. But companies have been inundated with complaints about their vehicles being left in obstructive places. Now one city is making companies running e-scooter and bike sharing services operate under license with strict conditions.

Brussels Mobility, a government transport department in the Belgian capital, is using the license system to clamp down on vehicles left cluttering up pavements. As well as collecting data on the location of vehicles, companies must remove obstructive ones within a 24 hour period and ensure customer data protection is adhered to.

The city has also introduced no-parking zones, where e-scooter users can be fined for abandoning them. The user is alerted on the scooter company's app if they attempt to leave a vehicle in the banned zones. There are 26 streets in Brussels where scooters cannot be left.

The rise in usage of e-scooters and bike sharing is in part due to commuters and tourists looking for a more environmentally way to get around cities. Companies that run them often boast about their green credentials. Brussels Mobility found that 7 out of 10 people have started using them combined with walking to replace public transport.

But a recent survey by North Carolina State University found that while they are more environmentally friendly than most cars, they can be less green than bikes, walking and some modes of public transport. 

While the electric scooters are carbon free to ride, users generally don't see the emissions produced by the manufacturing and transportation of the scooters, as well as their upkeep. Currently, scooters have an average usage span of just 7 months. All scooter companies in Brussels must have a recycling plan for their scooters that are damaged beyond repair, under the new special conditions.

While some e-scooter companies like Lime - which operates more than 1000 vehicles on the streets of Brussels - welcome the new regulations as more coherent, some say they don't go far enough. Campaign group Touring wants to see more comprehensive regulation of e-scooters. There are also calls for more no-parking zones.

So while e-scooters and bike-sharing schemes are easy to use, widely available and quicker than walking, some people in Brussels may be reconsidering using them due to the tighter rules and questions over their green credentials.