Paris bans e-scooters in landmark vote

Parisians have voted overwhemingly to ban rental e-scooters in a landmark referendum that could have implications for the future of the transport in other cities.

Figures show that 89 per cent of voters rejected the devices – but turnout was less than 10 per cent of the city’s registered voters.

The mayor of the French capital had campaigned to remove roughly 15,000 electric scooters from the city streets on safety, public nuisance and environmental cost-benefit grounds ahead of next year’s Olympic Games.

Anne Hidalgo said the result sent a “very clear message” to the industry and repeated her vow to respect the outcome of the non-binding referendum.

Easy to locate and hire with a downloadable app, and relatively cheap, the scooters proved popular with many residents and tourists since their introduction five years ago.

However, many Parisians have complained they are an eyesore and a traffic menace; last year, Paris registered 459 accidents with e-scooters and similar vehicles, three of them fatal.

Private e-scooters cannot be legally ridden on roads or pavements in the UK but have become a common sight; trials of rental e-scooters on roads in dozens of towns and cities across England have been extended until May 2024.

A spokesman for Dott, which offers the scooters in cities including Paris and London, said: “We regret that Parisians will lose a shared and green transport option. The result of this vote will have a direct impact on the travel of 400,000 people per month, 71 per cent of whom are 18 to 35-year-old residents. It is a step back for sustainable transport in Paris ahead of the 2024 Olympics.

“There is no impact to our services in London and other major European cities, where there is a trend of increasing sustainable travel.”

Another provider, Tier, said in a statement: “While the decision in Paris is disappointing for the sector and hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the service, Tier is committed to continuing to run safe and highly utilised shared e-scooter services across the UK.

“We have strong relationships with local authorities and the police, and are cooperating with the government as they collect information during this trial period.”

Tier was among the operators that had campaigned on social media in an effort to encourage users to vote in the referendum, but the efforts proved unsuccessful.

“I preferred to vote against, because in Paris it’s a mess,” said 47-year-old railway worker Ibrahim Beutchoutak. “The way it’s organised, the danger that it creates in Paris, the visual pollution, it’s not good.”

General physician Audrey Cordier, 38, said: “In my work, we see a lot of road accidents caused by scooters, so we really see the negative effects.”

Some voters said they would have rather had tighter regulations than an outright ban.

“I voted for [the scooters] because I’m against the rather binary choice we’re given in this referendum. I don’t want scooters to do whatever they want on pavements, but banning them is not the priority,” Pierre Waeckerle, 35, said.

Scooter services will end with the expiration of the permits issued to providers, which are currently valid until 1 September.

Additional reporting from agencies.