The first European city says “no” to electric scooters. This is what the residents wanted
Friday, September 1, will be the first day when electric scooters will not be available for rent in Paris. No European city has ever made this move before.
Perhaps tourists going to Paris will not be delighted, but residents will certainly finally breathe a sigh of relief. In the April referendum, as many as 89 percent of them voted against electric scooters in their city. Visiting the French capital on light vehicles will no longer be possible, but it will no longer be possible to litter the urban landscape with machines abandoned in various places.
Paris has banned rented electric scooters
Although the turnout in the mentioned referendum was not very high, as it amounted to only 7.46%. with 1.3 million inhabitants, Paris decided that the result would be binding. The capital authorities did not extend contracts with three scooter operators and ordered the companies to remove their equipment from the city streets.
Of course, the changes introduced on August 1 do not mean that scooter travel will not be possible in Paris at all. Private equipment will still be used, only devices rented via the application.
Accidents involving scooters in France
The capital’s decision was influenced not only by aesthetic considerations and the chaos associated with abandoning scooters in random places. In 2021, 24 people died in France in accidents related to the use of these vehicles. One of them died in Paris. In 2022, there were 459 accidents, including three fatal ones.
