Parisians to vote on e-scooter ban after wave of deadly crashes.
The French capital will decide fate of the electric vehicles in a referendum following a series of accidents
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Parisians will be asked to decide the fate of the French capital’s controversial electric rental scooters via a referendum.
City authorities are considering banning the vehicles, which first arrived in 2018 but have been criticised as being dangerous.
The issue is “extremely divisive”, Anne Hidalgo, the city’s mayor, told Le Parisien newspaper.
Parisians, she said, will be invited to have their say in a vote on April 2 by answering a simple question: “Should we maintain e-scooter sharing services in Paris?”
The socialist mayor is a vocal opponent of the scooters, which she said have caused too many accidents.
She said: “In a consultation I conducted with Parisians last year, this was a very divisive subject. It causes arguments. My idea would be for it to end.
“But I will respect the vote of the Parisians, even if it is contrary to what I would like.
Critics of the e-scooters said that riders often defy bans on riding on pavements, park them without consideration, abandon them in parks or even toss them into the Seine river.
Last September, city officials warned three operators that it would not renew their licences – which expire in March – if they failed to limit reckless riding and other “misuses”.
In response, the companies came up with a number of suggested improvements, including fitting the scooters with licence plates – making it easier to track riders running through a red light – or travelling in pairs on the single-person vehicles. Both are common violations.
In a rare sign of agreement, officials from the Right and green parties also supported proposals to tighten regulations.
Since their arrival in Paris, e-scooters have been involved in thousands of road accidents, dozens of them fatal, leading to tensions between riders and pedestrians.
In 2021, some 6,000 people were injured in accidents involving e-scooters.
That same year, a young woman was hit and killed by a scooter while walking along the banks of the pedestrianised Seine with a friend.
In 2019, an octogenarian died after being reportedly flung 10 feet into the air when an e-scooter hit him while crossing the street.
Calls to ban the scooters gathered pace that same year after a pianist from the Opera Garnier was knocked over by a wayward rider. She suffered a double fracture to her right arm that prevented her from playing.
Also in 2019, a mother and her seven-week-old daughter were struck by an e-scooter at a pedestrian crossing. The infant suffered head trauma.
London keeps a close eye
Authorities in London will likely be watching how events in Paris unfold, as rental e-scooters are still on a trial period until autumn.
Since London’s pilot scheme was launched in June 2021, more than 1.7 million trips have been taken on the streets of the British capital.
In 2021, police recorded more than 510 injuries, while nine deaths were reported across England, Scotland and Wales.
While Paris does not have as many e-scooters as some other European cities, demand is high among users who tout their convenience, particularly during transport strikes.
E-scooters are seen by some as an attractive alternative to overcrowded metros and rental bikes.
There were about 400,000 monthly e-scooter users in Paris last year.
According to Fluctuo, a French transport research group, the city has 15,000 e-scooters across its three main providers, Dott, Lime and Tier. DT.
