The death of a 13-year-old boy has forced Greece to confront a problem it has largely looked away from. Konstantinos, from the small Peloponnese town of Makrisia, was killed when a car struck him as he rode an electric scooter, one of hundreds of serious crashes involving children and teenagers on the vehicles in recent years. His death sparked a national conversation, and the government scrambled to respond. Last Tuesday, Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis announced that minors could be banned from riding scooters on public roads. Since then it has emerged that formal legislation is being drafted by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, with announcements expected from Deputy Minister Kostas Kyranakis.
The planned measures would bring e-scooters in line with other motor vehicles. Helmets would become mandatory for all ages, speed limits would be enforced, and children would be prohibited from riding on public roads. The government is also looking at rules already in force in the UK and the Netherlands, where e-scooters are classified as motor vehicles and require registration plates, operating licenses and insurance.
“The market is another matter entirely. E-scooters capable of reaching 80 kilometers per hour are freely sold in Greece, despite a legal speed limit of 25 kph for their use on public roads. Reining that in is expected to require the joint attention of both the transport and development ministries.
What makes the situation more awkward is that Greece already has a regulatory framework on paper. Thanasis Tsianos, president of the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers, pointed out that rules introduced in 2021 prohibit riders under 15, cap speeds at 25 kph, require helmets and reflective vests at night, and ban the sale of scooters exceeding that speed limit. The problem, evidently, has never been the rules.
“The scooter is not a toy,” Tsianos said. “It is a mode of transport suited to short distances, the so-called last mile. It is not possible for someone to ride a scooter from Kifisia down to Psychiko, let alone into Athens, because they will inevitably enter roads with higher speed limits.” He added that scooter riders are entirely unprotected in a collision, that the small wheels handle road irregularities poorly, and that the risk of overturning is greater even than with a bicycle. “A scooter is very dangerous if the user lacks experience, training in how to move within the road network and the ability to recognize hazards. Young children and occasional users do not have any of these three things.”
Transport engineers are putting forward their own suggestions. They want scooters restricted to roads with speed limits of up to 30 kph, and riders required to complete certified training before they can use public roads. That training, they suggest, could be delivered through schools to students in the third year of gymnasium, roughly equivalent to ninth grade in the U.S., at around age 15, with certification issued by traffic police. They are also calling for a registration system using sticker-style labels and compulsory third-party insurance
Tsianos also pointed to a regulatory gap that has nothing to do with riders. Shared e-scooter companies currently obtain their operating licenses from the Development Ministry, with no requirement to consult with the municipalities where they actually operate. The result is that a city council can wake up one morning to find 2,000 scooters on its streets, with no say in the matter.
He was careful, though, to put the scooter debate in broader context. “We have to understand that the big problem right now is the chaotic behavior of car drivers, as shown by the fact that most road casualties in cities involve pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists. In 2025 we had two deaths involving scooters and 520 deaths of pedestrians, motorcycle riders, cyclists and others. But with scooters we are seeing very young children.” The priority, he said, must be improving the infrastructure that keeps all vulnerable road users safe, not just those on scooters.
