On Sunday, Parisians will decide on whether to prohibit the rental of electric scooters in the city. According to a recent report, Paris was among the first places to use the app-based bike-sharing services Lime, Dott, and Tier. The service was popular with teenagers, especially for brief trips.
Tier’s Public Affairs Director in Berlin, Erwann Le Page, stated:
Symbolically the vote is very important. [Paris] is a city that has been a pioneer.
Following a chaotic scooter launch in 2018, city officials tightened regulations, establishing designated parking zones, lowering speed limits, and limiting operators.
The presence of these scooters remains controversial, according to the report, with pedestrians complaining about reckless driving and accidents, emphasising the dangers of vehicles that can be hired by 12-year-olds.
After feeling pressure from rule-breakers on the city’s roads, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo declared a referendum on rentable e-scooters in January. The pro-cycling Socialist, who favours a ban, told AFP that they cause “tension and worry” among Parisians.
Electric Scooters laws
France raised the minimum age for using an electric scooter from 12 to 14 on Friday, ahead of a weekend referendum in Paris on whether to outlaw the devices’ rental.
On Wednesday, the government revealed a new regulatory plan for e-scooters, raising the age limit and increasing fines for riding with another person from 35 euros to 135 ($150).
“The explosion in use (of scooters) has come with an increase in the number of accidents. It’s a cause for worry,” Transport Minister Clement Beaune told a press conference, adding that one in five accidents in Paris involved two people sharing an e-scooter.
The new regulations will apply to all scooters, including privately owned and free-floating ones rented through apps like Lime, Dott, or Tier, which are now available in more than 200 towns across France, according to Beaune.
On Sunday, Parisians will be asked to vote in a referendum arranged by the city government on whether to prohibit free-floating e-scooters.
Fans see them as a fun, affordable, and emission-free means of transportation, while detractors say they are dangerous, frequently driven poorly, and clog up the capital’s already congested streets.
Lower speed limits and designated parking zones have already been implemented in response to complaints from other road users and walkers.
‘Dumbed down the discussion’
Beaune, an ally of centrist President Emmanuel Macron and an outspoken critic of Socialist Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, supports stricter regulation of scooters over a complete ban.
“It’s an important consultation (on Sunday) that will be watched by a lot of other towns in France and overseas,” Beaune told the Europe 1 radio station. “I find it a shame that we have caricatured and dumbed down the debate.
“Instead of having it as ‘for’ or ‘against’, we could do ‘for, with rules’,” he added.
On Wednesday, free-floating scooter operators signed a charter as part of Beaune’s regulatory plan, committing to working on safety improvements, stretching battery life to at least five years, and recycling their products in France.
“We’re still a young industry which is calling for more regulation,” Erwann Le Page from Berlin-based Tier told AFP.
“We know that everything isn’t perfect, that there are things to improve… We need to be able to convince non-users that we have a role to play in cities.”
https://youtu.be/3M1N4cOqBhc
Pioneer no longer?
Beaune believes that voters in Paris will outlaw the rental devices, and operators are quietly concerned about the outcome.
Voting will be dominated by older citizens and those with strong personal reasons for outlawing the devices unless they can mobilise their mostly young users to turn out at polling locations throughout the city.
To read our blog on “Honda will release a brand-new electric scooter in 2023,” click here
