It is planned that not only for e-scooters, but also for other rental vehicles such as cars, trucks, vans, e-motor scooters, cargo bikes and bicycles, their providers will have to apply for special use permits in the future. In the subsequent approval, the city administration wants to impose conditions to ensure that these means of transport are parked properly. If this does not work, especially with e-scooters, the city is considering limiting the number of e-scooters through an award procedure.

Legally, this step is not entirely unproblematic because, according to the city, federal jurisdiction is not entirely clear. However, there are decisions by the Cologne Administrative Court and the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia that the parking of so-called sharing vehicles is indeed "special use requiring a permit" because they are parked there "not primarily for the purpose of traffic, but primarily for the purpose of initiating rentals", writes the administration in its justification.

The special use also entails fees for the operators. The Bonn administration has now submitted a proposal for a new fee schedule to the local politicians. Both the traffic and planning committees have already approved it with a broad majority. If the city council does the same in its June meeting, it could come into force soon after publication in the official gazette.

In its old version, the catalogue only charged fees for station-based car sharing. For this type of car rental, the fees per vehicle are to increase slightly in future to €63.50 per month near the city centre and €16.50 per month in outlying areas. For the first time, monthly charges would be introduced for rental vehicles that can be parked anywhere ("free-floating" is also the name for this). The city plans monthly fees of 71 Euro for cars, 147 Euro for trucks, six Euro for e-scooters, 2.50 Euro for e-scooters, 1.50 Euro for cargo bikes and 50 cents for bicycles.

Carsten Sperling, department head of the public order department, justified the high difference in fees between e-scooters and rental bikes in the planning committee with the fact that the scooters proved to be significantly more disruptive in the cityscape due to their quantity alone. Apparently the administration hopes that the amount of the fee will somewhat regulate the market with the various providers.

At the request of the coalition, the two technical committees also passed two resolutions concerning car sharing. On the one hand, such cars are to be able to be parked free of charge in municipal parking areas. Excluded from this, however, are parking areas for residents only, unless permanent car-sharing stations are set up there. It is hoped that this will make the rental model more attractive for citizens.

On the other hand, the alliance of the Greens, SPD, Left and Volt decided to make the "free-floating" model somewhat less attractive than station-based car sharing. Hence the higher fees. The reason given is that, according to studies, car sharing with fixed stations replaces more private cars than the model where the cars can also be parked elsewhere. As reported, a resident from Beuel had complained that cars from the Miles company were parked there for weeks at a time. The company denies these long parking periods. The city expects additional revenue of 200,000 Euro annually from the new fees.

Original text: Philipp Königs

Translation: Mareike Graepel