Houston may soon join a growing number of major U.S. cities that have banned electric scooters, citing increasing safety risks to pedestrians and riders.
A proposal to prohibit electric scooter use in downtown, Midtown, and East Downtown will be discussed this Thursday at the City Council Quality of Life Committee meeting. The measure would build upon a 2021 ordinance that already restricted companies from staging or renting scooters in public rights-of-way, including sidewalks and streets, and banned sidewalk riding in business districts.
The new proposal goes further, suggesting a full geographic ban in some of the city’s densest and most walkable neighborhoods.
The push comes amid mounting safety concerns from city officials, including Mayor John Whitmire, who has said that scooter use on sidewalks poses a threat to pedestrian safety. Council Member Julian Ramirez, who chairs the Quality of Life Committee, said that while the proposal originates from Whitmire’s administration, the city has also received complaints from downtown hotels, restaurants, businesses, and residents.
“There have been a number of instances where we have seen collisions downtown, and there has been three deaths” Ramirez said. “A lot of people who frequent restaurants and hotels and events downtown feel unsafe.”
According to presentation materials for Thursday’s meeting, the Scooter Safety Task Force — a joint effort by the Houston Police Department and the Office of Administration and Regulatory Affairs — reported the following enforcement actions between Jan. 31 and March 29:
- 338 warnings issued to riders
- 13 citations issued to vendors
- 8 citations issued to riders
- 129 scooters seized
- 4 arrests made
- 2 firearms recovered
The presentation also cites crash data from the Texas Department of Transportation, showing a rise in scooter-related accidents and fatalities:
- 2024: 21 accidents, 2 fatalities
- 2023: 19 accidents, 1 fatality
- 2022: 10 accidents, 0 fatalities
- 2021: 3 accidents, 0 fatalities
According to the city, the majority of these accidents have occurred downtown, where three electric scooter rental companies currently operate.
Some scooter vendors have publicly criticized the proposed ban, telling local media that it unfairly penalizes companies following regulations. One vendor warned that the ban could force them to shut down entirely.
As noted in the story, riding the scooters on the sidewalk is already banned. Mayor Whitmire has said repeatedly that his preferred strategy for improving road and traffic safety is stronger enforcement of traffic laws. I don’t see why this situation would be any different. Hand out more tickets instead of just warnings, and then let’s see where we are.
This is also much bigger than just downtown. Look at the map for the proposed ban:
Even if we concede that the scooters present a special hazard for downtown pedestrians, do we really need to extend that ban into Midtown, EaDo, and the First Ward? What’s going on here?
I stand by what I wrote about the no-scooters-on-sidewalks ordinance in 2021. For this, I’ll hand off the rest to A Tale of Two Bridges, from which I got that map.
This isn’t targeted enforcement. It’s a blanket ban. Instead of addressing late-night recklessness, City Hall—under the direction of a planning chief with more experience in mall campuses than urban mobility—chose to treat downtown like a private property instead of public space.
A Policy That Punishes Everyone Equally
Rather than targeting reckless behavior or enforcing existing rules, the city is opting for a one-size-fits-all ban that punishes everyone—including workers, students, and residents who rely on scooters for daily commuting and car-free access to jobs, transit, and meetings. This blanket approach doesn’t address root causes like poor infrastructure, lack of enforcement, or evening-party nuisance behavior—it just eliminates a mode of transportation entirely.
There Are Better Solutions. Houston could:
- Implement time-of-day restrictions to curb nighttime nuisances.
- Use speed governors in high-density zones.
- Create designated scooter parking and riding areas.
- Enforce existing traffic and behavior laws.
- Partner with vendors to educate users and share data for smart enforcement.
But instead, the city is choosing the easiest route: prohibition.
Who This Hurts Most
This ban doesn’t target bad behavior—it targets users. And those most affected are:
- Transit-dependent residents
- Gig workers and shift employees
- Students getting to class or work
- Visitors and locals exploring Downtown and bringing vibrancy and economic development
- Low-income riders using scooters as an affordable last-mile solution
By eliminating scooters, we’re pushing people back into cars, ride-hailing services, or unsafe walking conditions—undermining climate goals, affordability, and equity.
I’m not convinced that this is a problem that requires such a drastic solution. I’d like to know more about who rides scooters and why, and what effect this would have on them. And I maintain that if we can make the streets safer by ticketing more bad drivers, we can make downtown safer by ticketing more bad scooter riders. Why not give that a try first?