Parisians vote to ban rental e-scooters from French capital; Here's why

By Team Newsable | First Published Apr 3, 2023, 9:55 AM IST

Parisians have voted to rid the streets of the French capital of rental electric scooters, with an overwhelming 90% of votes cast supporting a ban. Paris was a pioneer when it introduced e-scooters, or trottinettes, in 2018 as the city’s authorities sought to promote non-polluting forms of urban transport.

The French capital's streets will no longer be home to for-hire electric scooters after a resounding win for road safety advocates and a setback to the industry. The City of Light, which was once a pioneer in adopting e-scooter services, is now poised to become the only major European city to ban the widely used vehicles reserved through apps like Lime.

In a public consultation organised by mayor Anne Hidalgo, city residents were asked to express their support or opposition to them. According to official findings, nearly 90% of the ballots were submitted against them.

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"We're happy. It's what we've been fighting for over four years," said Arnaud Kielbasa, co-founder of the Apacauvi charity, which represents victims of e-scooter accidents.

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"All Parisians say they are nervous on the pavements, nervous when they cross the roads. You need to look everywhere," Kielbasa, whose wife and infant daughter were hit by an e-scooter driver, told AFP. "That's why they've voted against them."

The prohibition could lead to other communities imitating it because it deals the global operators a serious financial and reputational damage.

Electric bikes for hire or personal use were prohibited in Montreal in 2020, and they were reinstated with tighter regulations a year later in Copenhagen. The government of France revealed tighter rules last week, raising the minimum age to 14 and raising the fines for infractions like driving while intoxicated. E-scooter businesses have supported these changes.

Hadi Karam, general manager for France at Lime, told AFP last week that Paris was going "against the current" in seeking to ban rental e-scooters, citing recent decisions to expand them in Washington, New York, Madrid or London.

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