In a matter of a few years, electric scooters They have ended up becoming an everyday element of the urban landscape in Spain. The problem is that road signs and regulations around this new type of mobility have taken longer to catch up. Since last year they have had their own signage, and town councils are already beginning to use it.
What is happening in Gijón. Just like share the media El Comercio, the Gijón City Council has requested signs of the R-118 model to install them in different parts of the city. This was announced in the municipal plenary session by the Councilor for Traffic, Mobility and Public Transport, Pelayo Barcia. The sign, which prohibits access to personal mobility vehicles (VMP, which includes electric scooters, hoverboards and similar), does not yet have a definitive location. And the City Council has a pending meeting with the Traffic and Citizen Security service to decide on which specific streets it will be installed.
The debate on the prohibition of this type of vehicles on certain streets came after an initiative by Vox to create a specific municipal ordinance for these vehicles, a proposal that was rejected. The councilor considered that there is already sufficient regulation: VMPs cannot circulate on sidewalks, they only allow one occupant, they must stop at a pedestrian crossing, and their maximum speed is 25 km/h.
Chaff pointed out Furthermore, since January an internal instruction from the Local Police has been in force to act on these vehicles, and that the municipality has acquired a dynamometer to detect scooters manipulated to exceed that limit. In the first quarter, nearly 200 complaints have already been filed since it came into force mandatory insurance.
Why does this signal exist and when did it arrive? The R-118 has been in the making for years. Since 2022, the DGT had been announcing the need to update the signage catalogwhich had not undergone substantial changes since 2003. The specific signal for VMP was one of the novelties that appeared in the drafts, although for years its entry into force was delayed due to the lack of legal support. And without modification of the General Traffic Regulations, there was no possible signal.
The change came in June 2025. Royal Decree 465/2025published in the BOE on June 17, updated road signage and incorporated new signs, including a specific prohibition on electric scooters. The sign came into force on July 1 of last year, with the obligation to remove the repealed signs before July 1, 2026. It was the first major reform of the sign catalog in more than two decades.
What exactly is R-118 and what does it prohibit. Visually, the R-118 follows the classic logic of prohibition signs: a circle with a red border and the silhouette of an electric scooter in the center, allowing its meaning to be understood at a glance. Although it is not only specific to scooters: it basically affects all personal mobility vehicles with motor propulsion. It can normally be found, for example, at the entrance to secondary roads or high-speed roads such as highways and highways, but also (as in the case of Gijón) in urban streets where the presence of these vehicles generates conflicts with pedestrians or other users.
Failure to comply can have consequences, as skipping the sign carries a fine of 200 euros.
Decision of the municipalities. The placement of these signs corresponds to each municipality, so their implementation will be progressive and adapted to the needs of each city. There is no nationwide deployment, so it is not unusual for there to be cities that have not incorporated it into their streets. Each council decides when and where to install them depending on the traffic in their area.
Although the signal has existed legally for almost a year, there really aren’t too many cities that have used it yet. However, there are some municipalities, including Gijón, that have already begun to act.
VMP park growth. This type of vehicle has grown brutally in Spain: from half a million units in 2020 to more than five million currently. This rapid growth has generated tensions that cities have no longer been able to ignore, including conflicts with pedestrians on sidewalks, accidents, scooters abandoned in the middle of the streets, and a general perception that these vehicles circulated without clear rules.
Regulation has come in layers: first state regulations, then municipal ordinances, and now specific signage. In Barcelona, for example, from February 1, 2025 it is mandatory to wear a helmet and driving on sidewalks is prohibited. Madrid has been imposing progressive restrictions, including the ban on scooter rental services after repeated non-compliance. Each city is building its own framework, within the limits set by the State.
What is still missing. The R-118 signal solves part of the problem (knowing where these vehicles cannot circulate) but there are important drawbacks. The councilor of Gijón pointed out that measures such as the mandatory use of helmets at the national level “are subject to a state regulatory development that has not yet occurred”, and the municipalities that have gone ahead on their own see that the fines end up being successfully appealed. The issue of homologation is also pending, since models sold before the new regulations have until 2027 to adapt or stop circulating.
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