Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

Ban is not going to have an effect on privately owned electrical scooters, of which 700,000 have been offered nationwide final yr.

Parisians have voted overwhelmingly to ban electrical scooters from the streets of the French capital.

The ban received between 85.77 % and 91.77 % of the votes within the 20 Paris districts that printed outcomes on Sunday, in accordance with town of Paris web site.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo hailed the consultative referendum as a hit and mentioned its consequence was “very clear”.

“There’ll now not be any self-service scooters in Paris from September 1st,” she mentioned.

The turnout in Sunday’s vote was very low.

Metropolis Corridor mentioned greater than 103,000 of Paris’s 1.38 million registered voters solid their ballots.

The vote was referred to as amid concern in Paris over tons of of accidents involving the micro-vehicles, which have been launched in 2018 and could be accessed by means of smartphone apps.

Final yr, the French capital registered 459 accidents with e-scooters and comparable automobiles, together with three deadly ones.

“We’re joyful. It’s what we’ve been combating for over 4 years,” Arnaud Kielbasa, co-founder of the Apacauvi charity, which represents victims of e-scooter accidents, instructed AFP information company.

Kielbasa, whose spouse, and toddler daughter have been hit by an e-scooter driver, added, “All Parisians say they’re nervous on the pavements, nervous once they cross the roads. You could look all over the place.”

There are at current three operators of the automobiles in Paris. They’re California-based Lime, Amsterdam-based Dott, and Berlin-based Tier.

Mayor Hidalgo is now anticipated to not renew contracts for the operators from August 31. The present contracts will run till September 2023.

Once they entered the market, operators have been supplied a three-year contract, which required that scooters’ velocity be capped at 20kmph (12.5mph), with designated parking areas.

Operators like Lime – who contend they’re being unfairly singled out as accountable for the customarily chaotic nature of Paris streets – had supplied additional laws, together with fixing licence plates, and guaranteeing the riders are above 18 so police might establish visitors offenders and restrict utilization to at least one passenger.

Lime and Tier despatched free voucher codes to customers and employed on-line influencers to influence younger voters to vote towards the ban.

However such measures did not persuade residents.

“They’re harmful, each for many who use them and for pedestrians,” Francoise Granier, a 68-year-old physician who voted within the ninth district of the capital, instructed AFP.

“And the police by no means intervene.”

The session is not going to have an effect on privately owned electrical scooters, of which 700,000 have been offered nationwide final yr, in accordance with the French Ministry of Transport.

About 100,000 journeys are accomplished every day in France on rented e-scooters in practically 200 cities and cities, in accordance with the ministry.

Montreal in Canada outlawed all electrical scooters for rental or non-public use in 2020, whereas Denmark’s capital Copenhagen banned rental variations in 2020 earlier than bringing them again a yr later with stricter circumstances.