Paris voted overwhelmingly to ban shared e-scooters

Dealing a significant blow to shared micromobility firms Lime, Dott and Tier, Paris has voted to ban e-scooter leases from its streets. Many within the trade concern that the transfer in Paris, the place free-floating scooters first grew to become obtainable in 2018, may have a ripple impact in different cities.

Paris has been some of the tightly regulated e-scooter markets, and that is one thing firms level to for example of how they will play properly with cities. Nonetheless, regardless of limiting scooter prime speeds to 10 kilometers per hour (about 6 miles per hour) and requiring drivers to make use of non-public parking areas or pay fines, Paris was the primary metropolis to utterly reverse its coverage of providing shared micromobility contracts. firms.

In a referendum organized by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Sunday, 89% of Paris residents voted in opposition to retaining shared e-scooters within the metropolis. The three firms paying for contracts to function within the Metropolis of Mild must pull their fleet of 15,000 e-scooters out of town by September 1.

Initially welcoming shared e-scooters to Paris, Hidalgo pushed to make Paris a extra livable 15-minute metropolis and pioneered insurance policies that reclaim parking areas from vehicles to create new bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly areas. Nonetheless, shared scooters have acquired a variety of backlash from many metropolis dwellers, who usually complain of reckless driving and litter on the sidewalks.

Hidalgo mentioned on Sunday that scooters are the reason for many accidents and that its enterprise mannequin is just too costly to be sustainable, with a 10-minute journey costing round 5 euros. He additionally mentioned that free-floating scooters should not as climate-friendly as he would really like. In the beginning of the 12 months, TechCrunch took an in-depth have a look at scooter use in Paris, and a number of other research discovered that whereas e-scooters are extremely in style, they largely substitute strolling or public transport relatively than driving.

That is to not say they don’t seem to be a alternative for any automotive journey. a study As of 2019, it was discovered that 7% of the kilometers traveled by scooters changed automotive and private taxi journeys, and this quantity has in all probability elevated over time. However 7% is nothing, says Hélène Chartier, metropolis planning director at C40, a worldwide community of mayors taking pressing local weather change motion. Chartier had beforehand served as a advisor to Hidalgo.

“As a part of the mobility package deal that Paris will provide as an alternative choice to vehicles, [shared e-scooters] might have been an choice,” mentioned Chartier. “With out all the opposite issues, they may have mentioned okay why not. However if you happen to add within the accidents, if you happen to add the issue within the public realm, in some unspecified time in the future you must say that this isn’t the actual answer. We’ve got to speculate extra in biking, e-bikes, strolling.”

Low voter turnout

David Zipper, a visiting scholar on the Harvard Kennedy College’s Taubman Middle for State and Native Authorities, tweeted He mentioned he wasn’t shocked that Paris voted in opposition to shared e-scooters, however did not count on such a giant distinction. This sentiment has been mirrored by scooter advocates and the businesses themselves.

Dott, Lime and Tier mentioned in a joint assertion that low voter turnout was affecting the outcomes of the referendum. Solely 103,084 folks voted, which is roughly 7.5% of registered Paris voters. they blamed He says the mixture of restrictive guidelines, a restricted variety of polling stations (and thus lengthy queues that deter younger voters) and the absence of digital voting “considerably tends to rank age teams, which widens the hole between execs and cons.”

As well as, the businesses mentioned the referendum was held on the identical day because the Paris marathon and solely residents of Paris have been allowed to vote, leaving out those that stay simply exterior town however commute.

Operators supplied free rides to clients who voted on Sunday and relied on social media influencers to entice youthful customers to vote, these efforts appear to have been in useless. Parisians reported a excessive proportion of older voters within the queues.

The referendum is non-binding, so Hidalgo might make the unlikely choice to maintain scooters within the metropolis based mostly on low voter turnout. The numbers clearly present that scooters are in style. Lime beforehand instructed TechCrunch that 90% of its fleet in Paris is used each day. In 2021, greater than 1.2 million scooter riders, 85% of whom reside in Paris, made a complete of 10 million journeys in Lime, Dott and Tier. That is about 27,000 rides a day.

The ban may have no impact on e-bikes supplied by shared micromobility firms that may stay within the metropolis. Equally, privately owned scooters weren’t affected by the ban, with 700,000 models bought in France final 12 months, in keeping with figures from the transport ministry.

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