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Sacré bleu! Paris residents have overwhelmingly voted to ban the usage of rental electrical scooters inside France‘s capital metropolis.
More than 100,000 votes had been solid within the referendum, with 89% voting in favor of banning the favored e-scooters, which might journey as much as 17 mph and might be legally rented by kids as younger as 12.
While the referendum verdict is nonbinding, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo mentioned that she was “committed to respecting the results of the vote.”
Hidalgo added that when the present contracts of e-scooter operators within the metropolis have expired on the finish of August, “there will be no more self-service scooters in Paris.”
The mayor hailed the vote as a “victory for local democracy.” Privately owned e-scooters will nonetheless be allowed.
Paris has been one of many largest markets on this planet for electrical rental scooters after the mode of transport first cropped up within the metropolis in 2018.
In 2022 alone, the town recorded round 20 million journeys on greater than 15,000 rental scooters, in line with The New York Times.
Critics have usually questioned the protection and correct use of electrical scooters. According to France’s highway site visitors and security delegation Securite Routiere, 34 folks died final 12 months in e-scooter-related incidents, with 570 others severely injured.
Related: Everything you should learn about e-scooters
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Initially, e-scooter operations had been seen as a handy and extra climate-friendly various to public transport. More just lately, Parisians have come to see {the electrical} scooter market as harmful and, in line with Hidalgo, “a nuisance.”
Nicolas Gorse, chief enterprise officer of e-scooter operator Dott, took intention on the ban in a latest interview on RMC radio.
“The real consequence is for our 400,000 monthly users, for the 800 employees of Dott in Paris,” he said. “Then it’s also for the residents since mathematically speaking, if we subtract the scooters, it’s more saturation in public transport and more individual vehicles.”
Paris isn’t the one European metropolis wrestling with the protected use of battery-powered automobiles.
In January, the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport Authority enforced a six-month ban on e-scooters and unicycles being taken on board native public transport. In 2016, Barcelona additionally banned their use in historic components of the town.
Additionally, Copenhagen enforced a full ban on electrical scooters in 2020. The following 12 months, it reversed the ruling and reintroduced the controversial mode of transport with stricter security pointers.
Rome has additionally clamped down, imposing new guidelines round electrical scooter use following an elevated variety of crashes and different associated incidents.
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