Parisians voted to ban electric scooter rentals in their city, a blow to scooter operators and a triumph for road safety campaigners.
The official results showed that almost 90% of votes cast in Sunday’s poll supported a ban on renting battery-powered personal vehicles. However, less than 8% of eligible voters took part in the voting. According to official figures, of the 1.38 million people on the city’s voter list, just over 103,000 took part in the poll. Of these, more than 91 thousand people voted against scooters.
The referendum was called in response to a rise in the number of people injured and killed using e-scooters in the French capital. Paris was one of the first cities to switch to electric cars and light electric vehicles, but critics say the latter is doing more harm than good.
Concerns are growing about how some people drive scooters – dodging traffic, dodging pedestrians on the sidewalks and speeding up to 27 km/h. Drivers often don’t wear helmets, and kids as young as 12 can legally rent scooters. There was also criticism of the fact that groups of parked electric scooters cluttered the sidewalks. Scooters were also opposed by supporters of cycling, other opponents noted the inappropriately high rental price of € 5 for 10 minutes.
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E-vehicle operators claimed that they accounted for a small proportion of the total number of traffic accidents in the city. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has decided to put scooter rentals to a referendum. Its result does not apply to electric scooters that are privately owned and used for their own needs.
The three main Parisian scooter operators, Lime, Dott and Tier, have reached out to youth on social media for support. They also offered free rides all day on Sunday.
A law passed in France in 2019 requires scooter riders to wear highly visible clothing and not ride against traffic. For violations, a fine of €135 is provided, for speeding they can be fined €1,500 for speeding.
Recall that on March 17, the President of Ukraine signed a law that recognizes electric scooters and unicycles as light electric vehicles. They introduce two new categories of transport:
Light personal electric vehicle (up to 1000 W and 25 km/h, with any number of wheels) Low speed light electric vehicle (10-50 km/h, up to 600 kg, 2-4 wheels)
The law amends other regulations to take into account new vehicles.
In Paris, they decided to forcibly limit the speed of rolling electric scooters to 10 km / h
Sources: BBC, Verkhovna Rada
