Lawmakers and state officials alike voiced deep unease on Thursday over the unchecked spread of e-scooters and electric bicycles across Cyprus, as fresh figures laid bare the scale of a problem that has left two people dead this year and complaints piling up at a rate that has taken even the police by surprise.
The Parliamentary Transport Committee heard that 5,141 complaints had already been lodged in the first eight months of this year alone — a figure that dwarfs the totals for the whole of the previous two years combined. Road accidents involving the devices, meanwhile, have claimed two lives and left four people seriously injured and three with minor injuries.
MPs were divided on the remedy. Some pressed for stricter policing of existing rules, others called for the government to finally build the infrastructure it promised years ago, and a few floated banning the devices outright.
Police told the committee that complaints had risen “geometrically” over the past three years, the overwhelming majority relating to scooters and e-bikes being ridden in places they had no business being. But the force’s own representative was clear that registering the devices was not the answer — what was needed, he argued, was somewhere for people to actually ride them. Where a cycle lane simply petered out, he said, alternative routes needed to be found, in partnership with local authorities.
The numbers tell their own story: complaints climbed from 2,499 in 2024 to 2,766 in 2025, before more than doubling to 5,141 in the first eight months of this year. Injuries followed the same grim trajectory — two in 2024, rising to 15 in 2025 (six of them serious) — while by the end of July this year four serious injuries, three minor ones, and two fatalities in Limassol had already been recorded. Limassol remains the epicentre of the problem, followed by Larnaca, with most of the injured aged between 25 and 39 — though five were under 18.
Ms Aphrodite Kofterou, Chief Administrative Officer at the Transport Ministry, called for tighter enforcement of the rules already on the books, a demand the police said they stood ready to meet — though unions were quick to warn that officers should not be left to shoulder the entire burden.
Ms Kofterou signalled the Ministry’s willingness to consider changes to the law, including the possibility — floated by the Minister herself — of requiring the devices to be registered and insured, though she cautioned that any such move would need to weigh costs against benefits carefully. She also confirmed that a draft order allowing authorities to confiscate scooters from rule-breakers had been out for public consultation since 26 August, with next steps to follow once it takes effect.
The Justice Ministry urged patience, with its representative, Mr Filippos Theodorou, arguing that officials should wait to see whether the confiscation order works before rushing to overhaul the law further — and voicing scepticism that registration and insurance would achieve much in any case.
Local councils, however, sounded a note of caution bordering on alarm. Mr Michalis Sokratous, Director of the Union of Municipalities, said it would be “very difficult” for any municipality to take on responsibility for confiscating devices, adding that traffic wardens have no power to demand identification from riders, who are under no obligation to hand over their details.
Police were more forthright. Mr Nikos Loizides, head of the police branch of the Isotita union, insisted that effective enforcement was simply impossible without a proper registry and mandatory insurance — and that if that could not be delivered, the devices should be banned altogether.
Concerns also surfaced over the unchecked import of high-powered models capable of reaching speeds of up to 80 kilometres per hour — a point raised by both MPs and the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEBE). Mr Zacharias Manitaras, a senior KEBE official, cited one particular scooter brand — popular even among minors, including, he revealed, his own 13-year-old son — capable of hitting that speed, and called for such imports to be banned outright. He said he was in full agreement with the position taken by the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB).
Speaking for OEB, Mr Alexandros Papadopoulos placed the blame squarely on the state for its failure to build adequate infrastructure, recalling that when the original legislation was passed four years ago, the then Minister had assured Parliament the necessary infrastructure was already in place. He called for a clear legal distinction between privately owned devices and those used for commercial hire — a point echoed by Mr Zinonas Santis, representing Bolt, which operates Cyprus’s only licensed scooter rental scheme in Nicosia.
Closing the session, the Committee’s chairman, Mr Sotiris Ioannou of ELAM, said MPs would await the confiscation order’s implementation before returning to the matter in October. Speaking afterwards, he warned that municipalities were already pleading an inability to cope, while the police — already stretched — faced serious doubts over whether they could enforce the new rules effectively. He questioned who would bear responsibility should another fatal accident occur, and said he was prepared to back “more drastic measures to deal with this anarchy.”
