Sacré bleu! Paris residents have overwhelmingly voted to ban using rental electrical scooters inside France’s capital metropolis.
Greater than 100,000 votes had been forged within the referendum, with 89% voting in favor of banning the favored e-scooters, which might journey as much as 17 mph and will be legally rented by kids as younger as 12.
Whereas the referendum verdict is nonbinding, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo stated that she was “dedicated to respecting the outcomes of the vote.”
Hidalgo added that after the present contracts of e-scooter operators within the metropolis have expired on the finish of August, “there will probably be no extra self-service scooters in Paris.”
The mayor hailed the vote as a “victory for native democracy.” Privately owned e-scooters will nonetheless be allowed.
Paris has been one of many largest markets on the earth for electrical rental scooters after the mode of transport first cropped up within the metropolis in 2018.
In 2022 alone, the town recorded round 20 million journeys on greater than 15,000 rental scooters, in accordance with The New York Instances.
Critics have typically questioned the security and correct use of electrical scooters. In keeping with France’s street site visitors and security delegation Securite Routiere, 34 individuals died final yr in e-scooter-related incidents, with 570 others severely injured.
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Initially, e-scooter operations had been seen as a handy and extra climate-friendly different to public transport. Extra not too long ago, Parisians have come to see {the electrical} scooter market as harmful and, in accordance with Hidalgo, “a nuisance.”
Nicolas Gorse, chief enterprise officer of e-scooter operator Dott, took goal on the ban in a latest interview on RMC radio.
“The actual consequence is for our 400,000 month-to-month customers, for the 800 workers of Dott in Paris,” he stated. “Then it’s additionally for the residents since mathematically talking, if we subtract the scooters, it’s extra saturation in public transport and extra particular person autos.”
Paris isn’t the one European metropolis wrestling with the protected use of battery-powered autos.
In January, the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport Authority enforced a six-month ban on e-scooters and unicycles being taken on board native public transport. In 2016, Barcelona additionally banned their use in historic components of the town.
Moreover, Copenhagen enforced a full ban on electrical scooters in 2020. The next yr, it reversed the ruling and reintroduced the controversial mode of transport with stricter security pointers.
Rome has additionally clamped down, imposing new guidelines round electrical scooter use following an elevated variety of crashes and different associated incidents.
