Paris has voted to banish e-scooter rentals from its streets. The French capital brought in around 15,000 e-scooters in 2018, hoping to introduce more sustainable and active travel for its
residents. However, the e-scooters have divided residents, with some hailing their usefulness, but others lamenting the danger they pose. In 2022, three people died and 459 people were injured in e-scooter-related incidents in Paris. Paris City Hall asked Parisians in its referendum on Sunday whether they were for or against self-service scooters in Paris. About 103,000 people voted, with 89% rejecting e-scooters and just 11% supporting them. The turnout was very low, at less than 10% of eligible voters.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told Agence France-Presse ahead of the referendum that “self-service scooters are the source of tension and worry” for Parisians. She added that barring them would “reduce nuisance” in public spaces. Ms. Hidalgo hailed the vote as a success and repeated her vow to respect the outcome of the consultative referendum.
Scattered around Paris, easy to locate and hire with a downloadable app and relatively cheap, the scooters are a hit with tourists who love their speed and the help-yourself freedom they offer. In the five years since their introduction, following in the wake of shared cars and shared bicycles, for-hire scooters have also built a following among some Parisians who do not want or cannot afford their own but like the option to escape the Metro and other public transport. But many Parisians complain that e-scooters are an eyesore and a traffic menace, and the micro-vehicles have been involved in hundreds of accidents.
Ms. Hidalgo and some of her deputies campaigned to banish the "free-floating" rental flotilla, so-called because scooters are picked up and dropped off around town at their renters' whim, on safety, public nuisance, and environmental cost-benefit grounds before the capital hosts the Olympic Games next year.
E-scooters are available for rent in London, but in the UK, private scooters must only be ridden on private land, not in public. They have also been banned from Transport for London services and stations because of concerns over the safety of their batteries. Collisions involving e-scooters in the UK tripled in a year from 2021 to 2020, the most recent numbers available. The Department for Transport's annual road casualties report found there were 1,352 reported collisions involving e-scooters, dwarfing the 2020 figure of 460.
In conclusion, Parisians have voted to ban e-scooters, with 89% rejecting them and just 11% supporting them. The micro-vehicles have been involved in hundreds of accidents, with some people seeing them as an eyesore and a traffic menace. However, tourists love their speed and the help-yourself freedom they offer. E-scooters are available for rent in London, but in the UK, private scooters must only be ridden on private land, not in public. They have also been banned from Transport for London services and stations due to concerns over the safety of their batteries. Photo by Chabe01, Wikimedia commons.