More than 13,000 electric scooters have been pulled off Dubai’s roads this year, as police press ahead with a sustained enforcement drive against riders who disregard traffic rules. Dubai Police have confiscated 13,657 electric scooters in the first eight months of the year during campaigns built around one aim: stopping reckless riding before it results in deaths, serious injuries, or permanent disabilities.
Brigadier Juma Salem Bin Suwaidan, who directs the General Department of Traffic at Dubai Police, said field teams are continuing to take legal action against offenders to safeguard both riders and everyone else on the road. He pointed to one violation as especially serious: taking scooters onto roads where speed limits exceed 60 km/h, even though dedicated paths already exist in several parts of the emirate. Such conduct, he said, will not be tolerated.
Enforcement reaches well beyond high-speed roads. Bin Suwaidan said patrols are also stopping riders who go against the flow of traffic, ride on sidewalks, cut through markets and narrow alleyways, cross roads dangerously, weave between lanes over dividers, and operate in areas never meant for scooters — each of which, he noted, endangers the rider and the public alike.
The department has set out what it expects riders to have and do. That includes a standards-compliant helmet and reflective vest, obedience to signals, signs, and officer instructions, and a machine fitted with a white front light and reflector, a red rear light and reflector, and brakes confirmed to be working before each ride.
Bin Suwaidan called on riders to take responsibility for their own safety and that of others, staying within marked routes and keeping to posted speed limits. Obeying traffic law, he stressed, is not a choice riders may weigh but a core duty tied directly to protecting lives on Dubai’s roads.
