The ban on renting electric skateboards came into effect this Friday in Paris in response to the growing number of injuries and even deaths.
In 2022 alone, three people died and 459 were injured in accidents involving these skateboards, which were rented through mobile applications.
The move came after a vote he took in April on the issue in which nearly 90% of those who participated spoke in favor of the ban. However, less than 8% of citizens eligible to vote went to the polls.
Paris is now one of the first capitals to ban these electric vehicles, just five years after being an early adopter.
“Although there has been some progress, in the end the balance is negative. The anarchy was unbearable,” said David Belliard, in charge of mobility at the Paris mayor’s office, on Thursday.
During a time, up to 12 companies of these skateboards came to operate simultaneously in the city. About 800 people worked in this business.
The vote marked a political triumph for the mayoress, Anne Hidalgo, who after having been the one who introduced these rental vehicles on the streets, became the voice of all the people who found electric skateboards annoying.
Earlier this year, he called the polls, in response to the increasing number of accidents.
One of the most shocking accidents occurred in June 2021, when an electric skateboard carrying two people, something that was not allowed, ran over a 31-year-old Italian woman, who died after hitting her head on the pavement and suffer a cardiac arrest.
It had also become a problem that users left skateboards abandoned anywhere and many had even ended up at the bottom of the Seine.
Hidalgo said he was personally opposed to these skateboards, but would respect the voters’ decision, whatever the referendum result.
Voting was conducted with minimal publicity.
What happened was obvious and predictable. Older people, who vote regularly and often loathe electric skateboards, turned out in droves.
As a result, and to the chagrin of tourists and some passers-by, 15,000 electric scooters were removed from the streets of Paris after the city council failed to renew the license of the companies that operated them.
Private skateboards will still be allowed.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cw56pp3g1gdo, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-09-01 17:50:07
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