Paris becomes this Friday, September 1, the first European capital to ban hovering electric scooters on its streets, leaving fans devastated, but relieving those who hated its “nuisance” factor.
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In a referendum in April, nearly 90% of citizens voted to ban skateboards, a direct democracy victory that Mayor Anne Hidalgo celebrated despite a mere 7.5% turnout.
The ban applies to scooter rentals that have been offered by various operators since 2018, although people will still be able to use them in Paris with the privately owned devices.
With complaints that users push pedestrians on sidewalks or awkwardly leave their skateboards at intersections, the city’s 15,000 two-wheeled machines from providers Tier, Lime and Dott had become “nuisances” for many Parisians, Hidalgo said at the time.
But “a lot of people were sad” by the decision, said Paris-based American influencer Amanda Rollins, 33, who often scooters, one of the 400,000 people who did so in 2022, according to operator figures.
“They’re so much fun!” he added, noting that simply being able to get on one offers “a really reliable way to get back home… like a safety net” on nights when the subway closes early. the bars of the capital.
The day that the scooter arrived in Paris in 2018 it was “like Christmas… it was like Santa Claus had come overnight,” he recalled, praising its use for touring the city with friends and its practicality when stopping for a quick session of photos on Instagram.
“turn page”
Paris “is a unique case,” said Clement Pette, Tier’s head of operations in France. “It’s a great page turner.”
On Friday, the Berlin-based company had collected 3,000 of its 5,000 scooterwith increasing red zones on his app’s map, showing parking bans in more and more areas of Paris overnight as he loaded them into vans.
Only a small area of central Paris will have skateboards available until the wheels come off for good.
Like other operators, Tier’s newly overhauled machines will head to other cities where it offers its services.
Some Tier machines will remain outside Paris and most will return to Germany or Warsaw, while Lime will send them to Lille, London, Copenhagen and German cities; and Dott will send some as far as Tel Aviv.
“We have turned the page on skateboards” for the entire Paris region, said Xavier Mirailles, director of public affairs for Lime. Instead, like the other operators, Lime is betting on its fleet of 10,000 floating rental bikes, compared to the close to 5,000 offered by Tier.
uneven impact
The removal of rental scooters from Paris won’t mean they disappear completely from the streets of the capital, as many people have made the leap to owning their own, or more exotic ones, like electric monowheels.
“Shared electric scooters can be a gateway to owning a personal scooter,” says Anne de Bortoli, a researcher at the Montreal-based CIRAIG sustainability lab.
He stressed that, in recent years, the scooter have begun to influence the emissions of Parisian transport, and that the second generation models produce carbon emissions of about 60 grams of CO2 per kilometer.
This figure is “higher than that of the personal bicycle, the subway or commuter trains”, the means of transport most replaced by scooter“but it also replaces some taxi and personal car journeys”, which means “slight advances in terms of carbon footprint”.
“The scooter they allowed people to access this mode of transportation, try it out, and see if it met their needs. This often made people want to change,” De Bortoli said. While these vehicles have had an environmental impact, they have also exacted a heavy toll on users: 10 motorcyclists in France died in July alone, according to government data, the highest figure in the country’s history.
In announcing the figures earlier this month, road safety officer Florence Guillaume “strongly encouraged” road users scooter to wear a helmet, mandatory in some cities such as Italy and Copenhagen, the Danish capital.
(AFP)
This article was adapted from its original in English.
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