Tel Aviv imposing stiff e-scooter restrictions as injuries mount

Tel Aviv municipality has issued new instructions on e-scooters as the number of injuries from accidents mounts. Tel Aviv will become the world's first city to require all electric bicycles and e-scooters for hire to have license numbers and helmets.

The city will also ban electric bikes and scooters from busy pedestrian areas such as Tel Aviv Port. The speed limit for electric scooters and bikes will be reduced from 25 kilometers per hour to 15 in certain areas. GPS devices attached to the scooters will slow them down where the limit has been reduced.

In the past month alone "Globes" found that 288 people came to the emergency and accidents room at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital following injuries involving electric scooters and bikes.. There was one fatality and 15% of the injuries were to the head.

There are an estimated 8,000 electric scooters for hire in Tel Aviv and many thousands more private scooters.

The new license plates, which will be attached by the start of January, will enable people to report violations to the municipality, such as riding on the sidewalk, and the scooter companies will be required to sanction whoever had leased the scooter at the time - three violations and the scooter company will be required to block the users account.