Parisians Vote To Remove Rental E-Scooters

On Sunday April 2nd Parisians voted by a margin of nearly 90% to banish rental e-scooters from the streets of the French capital. While the turnout was less than 8% the overwhelming result will mean the devices will be removed, promised Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

Of the 1.38 million people registered to vote in Paris, just over 103,000 took part. Observers report that most voters were far from the flush of youth.

Paris will become the only major European capital to outlaw app-rented e-scooters.

The rental e-scooters—speed governed, and restricted by GPS chips to certain areas —were introduced on the streets of Paris in 2018. Privately owned e-scooters, which are not speed governed or geofenced, are not part of the imminent ban.

The rental e-scooters are operated by city-regulated providers California-based Lime, Amsterdam-based Dott and Berlin-based Tier. The trio have been hedging their bets recently by diverting into the provision of rental e-bikes.

“I’m committed to respecting the choice of voters, purely and simply,” Hidalgo told reporters on Sunday evening. She added that the shared e-scooter business model was unsustainable, claiming it was “very expensive—five euros ($5.40) for 10 minutes—it’s not very sustainable, and above all, it’s the cause of a lot of crashes.”

“There’s a trend towards these vehicles [in cities around the world,” Hadi Karam, general manager for France at Lime, told AFP last week, “and this trend started in Paris which was a pioneer.”

While the turnout in the vote was pitifully low the ban will be imposed soon with city licenses to operate e-scooters rescinded by the end of August.