About one in seven riders of electric scooters ride the scooter on weekend evenings while intoxicated
About one in seven, or 15 per cent, of electric scooter riders who are breathalysed on a weekend evening ride the scooter while so intoxicated that they get a traffic penalty fee of 200 euros.
The police monitored the traffic behaviour of riders of electric scooters in four Finnish towns at the turn of August and September on weekend evenings. The surveillance took place on Friday 22 August, Saturday 23 August and Friday 5 September 2025. The surveillance campaign was carried out in a pre-planned manner in Helsinki, Turku, Oulu and Joensuu. The police breathalysed a total of 478 riders of electric scooters. A traffic penalty fee for driving while intoxicated was imposed on 70 riders of electric scooters. Riding an electric scooter while intoxicated was especially commonplace in the late evening hours, when up to about one out of five of those who were breathalysed rode the scooter while intoxicated at a level that led to a sanction.
In two different towns, Oulu and Turku, a total of about a fifth of those sanctioned also carried passengers on the electric scooter, which is not allowed by law (Road Traffic Act, Section 147). About ten per cent of riders of electric scooters in three towns (Helsinki, Oulu and Joensuu) gave a breathalyser sample that was below the penalty limit.
According to Section 17a(1) of the Road Traffic Act, “a bicycle equipped with a motor or a light electric vehicle may not be ridden in such a way that the rider’s blood alcohol content during or after riding is at least 0.5 per mil or that the rider has at least 0.22 milligrams of alcohol per litre of exhaled air.” This section entered into force on 17 June 2025. It appears that the citizens’ awareness of the new prohibition has not improved during the summer.
During the summer, between 17 June and 31 August 2025, the police imposed a total of about 700 traffic penalty fees for violating the above-mentioned section, in other words for riding an electric scooter while intoxicated in a state of intoxication of at least 0.5 per mil. Approximately 40 per cent of these penalties were imposed in the areas of the police departments of Southwest Finland, Oulu and Eastern Finland. About 70 per cent of all penalties were imposed on Fridays and Saturdays. Four out of five traffic penalty fees were imposed in the evenings between 7 pm and 2 am. This also directed the intensified surveillance now implemented to certain towns on Friday and Saturday evenings.
There is clearly variation between different towns, but the problem itself, in other words riding while intoxicated, can be observed in all towns where electric scooters are available for rent. However, the proportions are different in relation to the extent of the problem.
The objective of the legislative reform which entered into force in June is to promote traffic safety by reducing the use of electric scooters while intoxicated and the resulting traffic accidents and dangerous situations. Another goal is to reduce the injuries and damage caused by riding while intoxicated to the riders themselves and to other road users and property as well as to decrease the resulting costs and burden on health care, and to strengthen the sense of safety among road users.
The police wish that no vehicle is operated while intoxicated. Unfortunately, this wish will not come true, which is why the police will continue to monitor the use of intoxicants in traffic among the drivers and riders of all vehicles.
