It has been an overwhelming triumph of the ‘No’. This Sunday the 1.3 million Parisians registered in the municipal electoral roll were called to the polls to decide the fate of the 15,000 free-service scooters in the capital. Despite the fact that only 8% of them have finally participated in the consultation, those who did spoke out en masse (close to 90%) for the non-renewal of contracts with free-service scooter operators.
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Further
Hitting the streets of Paris in 2018 as part of new efforts to promote alternative forms of transportation and replace car use, electric scooters have come under increasing criticism in recent years. In particular, the increase in accidents in which they are involved and the lack of responsibility of some users have been pointed out. According to their detractors, they have become a danger both for the users themselves and for pedestrians, in addition to the fact that many end up lying on the sidewalks.
A few days before the vote, the mayoress had declared in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) that self-service scooters had become “a source of tension” among the inhabitants of the capital, whose benefit in In terms of emission reduction, certain studies cast doubt on it.
In recent years, the Paris City Council had limited the number of operators to three companies: the Californian Lime, the Franco-Dutch Dott and the German Tier, whose management contracts expired in March this year. Hence the meaning of the only question in this Sunday’s consultation, which left it up to the voters to extend these concessions or not.
Referendum
Although the vote is not legally binding and the final decision rests with the City Council, Anne Hidalgo had declared that she would act based on the result. “This vote is similar to a referendum, although it does not have the legal form,” explained the mayoress of Paris. In any case, the consultation does not affect electric scooters for private use, only those for free service, which must disappear from the streets of Paris before August 31.
The participation rate, which finally remained at 8% (103,084 voters), was one of the great unknowns of the day. Especially on a Sunday that coincided with the Paris marathon and in the midst of a period of social mobilizations against the pension reform. Despite the low turnout, in the polling stations in the center of the capital the queues have been visible throughout the day, especially in the afternoon. “The number of voters does not matter,” Hidalgo had stated in the same interview with AFP, “the tools of participatory democracy improve as they are used.”
Hidalgo appeared shortly after the vote to thank the Parisians for their participation in the referendum. “You have given us a very clear roadmap”, assured the mayoress, who has stressed that she will work to make the majority decision effective. “It’s a nice victory for local democracy.”
Thank you to the more than 100,000 Parisians who spoke, it’s a great victory for local democracy. Once again, Paris has been able to innovate!
Parisians have overwhelmingly spoken out against self-service scooters, we will put an end to it by September 1st. pic.twitter.com/2YTy1YGDdj
— Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) April 2, 2023
The three scooter operators had criticized the form of the consultation, asking that both electronic voting and requested voting be enabled, in search of a greater participation of young Parisians, who are more likely to use this means of transport. They also relied on a Harris Interactive poll that found that only 33% of 18-24-year-olds had heard of voting, compared to 77% of 50-64-year-olds and 90% of those aged 50-64. 65.
Influencers
Uneasy about the result of the vote, the operators have mobilized in the previous weeks to convince the voters. For example, looking for collaborations with various influencers. Journalist Vincent Manilève He pointed out these days that several closely followed accounts on Twitter and TikTok have been promoting the scooters at the request of the three operators, who have sponsored the content.
They also distributed leaflets at universities in the capital and encouraged users to parade during the latest Pari Roller, an event that brings together skaters, cyclists and scooter users through the city every Friday. In addition, on Sunday the journeys on the self-service scooters were free to favor the movement of users to the polling stations.
In November 2022, after the City Council declared that it was considering not renewing the contracts, the operators prepared eleven proposals to improve the safety of users and pedestrians and better integrate the new vehicles into public space. Among them, a license plate to facilitate the sanction of users who do not comply with traffic regulations.
“To vote against scooters would be to go backwards, to deprive Parisians of an efficient mode of transport, just a few months before the Olympic Games,” Dott, Lime and Tier had argued, aware of the symbolic weight of their presence in the French capital. “It would mean more cars, more motorcycles and more saturation in public transport.”
The minimum age of 14 years
Since Anne Hidalgo announced the referendum in January, the issue has divided the coalition of progressive parties that leads the municipal corporation. Some of the communist and environmental councilors have shown little interest in the initiative and have pointed to other issues that they consider more important, such as better regulation of vacation rental platforms.
For his part, the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, presented last Wednesday a national action plan aimed at regulating the use of electric scooters throughout France. Beaune, a deputy for Paris from Emmanuel Macron’s party and a possible candidate for mayor of the capital in the next elections, distanced himself from Anne Hidalgo, criticizing the consultation and advocating regulation instead of a ban.
“There has been zero information [de cara al voto], the arguments of each side have not been able to express themselves and there is only one electoral college per district. And I’m sorry that the question is binary,” said the minister in an interview in Europe 1. “This is an important consultation that will be observed by many other cities in France and abroad; the debate has been caricatured and simplified. Self-service scooters are available in more than 200 cities in France and are used daily by 100,000 people, a number that is constantly increasing. We have to reinforce the regulation of these transports, ”he added in another interview with the newspaper 20 Minutes.
Under the new ministerial plan, the minimum age to drive an electric scooter will thus go from 12 to 14 years “to protect the youngest.” The fines will increase from 35 to 135 euros to penalize driving on prohibited lanes or driving two people on the same scooter.
It also provides for the creation of a micromobility observatory and a letter of good practice that operators will have to sign from now on (user safety, work on battery life of a minimum of five years, mandatory recycling in France , etc.). Regarding the mandatory use of the helmet, “the question remains open: for the moment, we have chosen not to impose it, but it is strongly recommended and our communication campaigns will repeat it,” added the minister.