Montserrat enforces 15-year minimum, helmets and insurance for e-scooters

Montserrat’s council meeting on 29 October reported on the results so far of the local police campaign on electric scooters, running from Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November: 22 vehicles immobilised to date. The rules changed on 1 October, when Royal Decree 518/2026 came into force, amending the General Traffic Regulations to protect vulnerable road users.

What the state rules require

• Minimum age 15. Under-15s may not ride a personal mobility vehicle (art. 155.3).
• A helmet at all times. Approved or certified and properly fastened, even on short trips (art. 118.3).
• Lights at night, and by day from October 2027. Article 155.5 requires the light to be on at all times, but the decree’s third transitional provision postpones that duty during daylight until 1 October 2027. Until then the light is compulsory at night and in poor visibility.
• No pavements. Pavements are reserved for pedestrians and any vehicle is banned from them (art. 152.1).
• Visible at 150 metres after dark. Between dusk and sunrise, and also when rain or fog cuts visibility, riders need a light or reflective element visible at that distance (art. 118.3).
• The vest is only for work. A high-visibility vest is compulsory for people riding professionally, not for private riders (art. 118.4).

The regulations leave it to each council to decide which streets scooters may use (art. 155.1) and to allow them to share pedestrian areas by by-law (art. 152.1), but the basic framework is the same across Spain.

Insurance comes from a separate law

Compulsory insurance is not in that decree. It was created by Law 5/2025 —in force since 26 July 2025, although the compulsory insurance for light personal vehicles, regulated by its first additional provision, has only applied since 2 January 2026—, and is implemented by Royal Decree 52/2026, which set up the register of light personal vehicles. The obligation covers scooters allowed on the road because they hold a circulation certificate, are entered in the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT) register and carry the identification label. Uncertified models sold before 22 January 2024 may keep circulating until 22 January 2027, but they must also be registered so they can be identified. Registration is done through the DGT’s electronic office.

No published local by-law

Montserrat has no published traffic or personal-mobility by-law: its list of municipal by-laws gathers the town’s fiscal and general rules and none on traffic. The last local document on scooters is a notice from 16 March 2022 announcing its own rules, with a compulsory helmet, a pavement ban, zero alcohol for minors and a minimum age of 16 unless the rider holds an AM moped licence, of which no published text can be traced. The age now set by the state regulations is 15. Anyone unsure which streets they may use in the town centre can ask the local police.

The enforcement campaign closes on Wednesday 4 November.

Illustrative photo: Javier Pérez Montes, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 licence; image cropped.

Editor’s note: an earlier version of this piece wrongly said the scooter’s light must be on at all times, without the decree’s daylight grace period, and dated the entry into force of Law 5/2025 to 2 January 2026, the date that applies to its first additional provision. It was corrected on 30 October 2026.

Sources: broadcast of the Ajuntament de Montserrat plenary (YouTube channel), Royal Decree 518/2026, Royal Decree 52/2026 and Law 5/2025 (BOE).