Bosnia and Herzegovina E-Scooter Laws: A Split Country (2026)

This article is general information about e-scooter law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is not legal advice. Because the rules differ by entity, consult a lawyer licensed in the specific entity (Republika Srpska or the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) for a specific question. Information last verified on 23 July 2026.

Are e-scooters legal in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

The honest answer depends on where in the country you are riding, because BiH's constitutional structure splits lawmaking between the state and two entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the two entities are not in the same place on e-scooters.

At the state level, BiH's Law on the Basics of Traffic Safety on Roads (Zakon o osnovama bezbjednosti saobraćaja na putevima BiH) does not recognize e-scooters as a distinct road-user category at all, confirmed by multiple BiH outlets summarizing the current text. A bill meant to fix that, sponsored by MPs Aida Baručija and Rejhana Dervišević, was on the House of Representatives agenda for 22 July 2026. The request to fast-track it under urgent procedure did not receive the required entity majority, and the bill was instead referred to the Collegium for inter-entity harmonization. As of 23 July 2026, it has not passed, and reporting explicitly frames the outcome as the bill not clearing the vote, not as a delay to a done deal.

Republika Srpska, one of BiH's two entities, is a different story: it already has its own e-scooter regime in force, under its own entity-level Law on Traffic Safety on Roads (details below). No equivalent law was found for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH's other entity, this session, which appears to leave the Federation defaulting to the same gap that exists at the state level.

Local and regional variation

This is the central fact about e-scooters in Bosnia and Herzegovina: there is no single national rule, and the split runs along the country's entity lines, not simply state versus local.

Republika Srpska already runs its own regime under its Law on Traffic Safety on Roads, splitting e-scooters and similar personal mobility devices into four classes: Classes 1 and 3 are capped at 6 km/h, and Classes 2 and 4 at 25 km/h. A helmet is mandatory, and a rider must hold either a traffic-rules knowledge certificate or a driving licence. Carrying a passenger is not permitted. On sidewalks, the device is limited to 6 km/h regardless of class; anything faster must use the roadway.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: this article's searches did not find a comparable entity-level or cantonal-level scooter law. In the absence of a found rule, riders there are left with the same state-level gap described above, no dedicated e-scooter category, rather than a Federation-specific framework.

One notable detail from the failed 22 July 2026 state-level vote: representatives of SNSD, a Republika Srpska-based party, specifically opposed the state-level bill, citing that their entity already has its own law. That opposition is itself part of why the bill did not pass, and it illustrates the underlying tension: a state-level fix has to reconcile with an entity that already regulates the same activity on its own terms.

Rider rules (Republika Srpska)

A helmet is mandatory. A rider must hold either a traffic-rules knowledge certificate or a driving licence. No passengers are permitted. Device class determines the applicable speed cap, 6 km/h for Classes 1 and 3, 25 km/h for Classes 2 and 4.

Rider rules (the failed state-level bill, for context only)

The bill that did not pass on 22 July 2026 would have set a minimum age of 14, a mandatory helmet, a mandatory sound signal, mandatory reflective gear or lights at night, bike-lane-first routing, and a requirement to dismount and push the scooter at unmarked crossings. None of this is currently law at the state level; it describes what was proposed and did not clear the vote.

Penalties

This article did not find published fine amounts for either the Republika Srpska regime or the failed state-level bill. Republika Srpska's rules as researched describe conduct requirements (helmet, licence or certificate, no passengers, speed caps by class) without an accompanying fine schedule this session confirmed.

Enforcement in practice

At the state level, this article found no e-scooter-specific enforcement data, consistent with there being no state-level legal category to enforce in the first place. For Republika Srpska, this article did not find detailed enforcement statistics (seizure counts, fine totals) beyond confirmation that the entity-level regime exists and is the applicable framework there.

Legal history and what may change

The 22 July 2026 vote is the most recent development: the state-level bill's fast-track request failed to secure the required entity majority and was referred to the Collegium for harmonization between the two entities, rather than being adopted. This should not be read as the bill being close to passage; reporting frames it as not passing, full stop, with the harmonization process as the next, open-ended step. This article did not find a timeline for when, or whether, that process concludes.

For how e-scooter law is handled in other federal or devolved systems, see the world e-scooter law guide.