Paris makes helmets and reflective gear mandatory for e-scooter riders after 79 road deaths in 2025

New rules take effect

The Paris police prefecture announced on Saturday, August 8, 2026, that helmets and high-visibility reflective gear are now mandatory for all users of electric scooters, gyropodes, hoverboards, monoroues, and similar motorised personal transport devices on public roads in Paris and its inner suburbs. The inner suburbs covered are the departments of Hauts-de-Seine (92), Seine-Saint-Denis (93), and Val-de-Marne (94). The rules took effect on Friday, August 7, upon publication of the prefectoral order, and apply at all hours of the day and night on all public roads.

Riders caught without a helmet face a fixed fine of €135, while those without a reflective vest or high-visibility equipment face a €35 fine. The prefecture said the measures respond to a significant increase in bodily accidents involving these devices, a substantial proportion of which cause serious or fatal head injuries. The order states that the coexistence with other road users multiplies the risks of collision and falls, and that riders are particularly exposed due to the absence of a vehicle body, the speeds reached, and poor visibility, notably at night.

Rising casualties

According to data from the Observatoire national interministériel de la sécurité routière, cited by the police prefecture in its order, the proportion of unprotected road users, particularly users of motorised personal transport devices, among those killed or seriously injured has risen sharply. In 2025, 79 people using these devices died, 34 more than the 45 recorded the previous year. Approximately 1,100 e-scooter users were seriously injured in 2025, a 33% increase over 2024.

Rental scooters already gone

Rental e-scooters disappeared from Paris streets in 2023, when the city voted to ban them on safety grounds. However, privately owned devices remain widely used across the capital. Other European cities have also tightened rules on the two-wheelers. Madrid banned rental e-scooters in 2024, and Brussels announced in June 2026 that it would follow the same path.

Patchwork of local rules

Several French departments have already made helmets and reflective gear mandatory for motorised personal transport device users, including Seine-et-Marne, Alpes-Maritimes, Vaucluse, and Yonne. The Nord and Manche departments are set to implement similar requirements on September 1, 2026. In Manche, where a quarter of road deaths now involve soft mobility users, prefect Marc Chappuis introduced the rules to reduce the sometimes dramatic consequences of accidents.

Under the current French Code de la route, helmets are mandatory for cyclists only under age 12, and for motorised personal transport devices only outside built-up areas. Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, minister delegate for Citizenship, told Le Figaro on Friday that she has asked the Sécurité routière to work on a project to harmonise mandatory helmet use at the national level. Her office said the goal is to generalise the helmet requirement to e-scooters and cyclists in all circumstances and across the entire territory, noting that mandatory equipment is determined based on exposure to risk, including speed differentials, the presence of heavy goods vehicles, and road surface conditions.