2023-08-31 06:33:07
They bid farewell to the capital, as quickly as they had imposed themselves, from 2018. The 15,000 electric scooters so far offered in self-service are performing their very last laps on the Parisian asphalt, this Thursday August 31.
So decided, at the beginning of April, the Parisians, thanks to an unprecedented vote, for or against the maintenance of this mobility offer. Participation only reached 7%, but the result of the consultation was clear: nearly nine out of ten voters called for the disappearance of this service, which was very popular with young people and which, in some months, totaled 400,000 users. .
3 dead and 459 injured in the capital in 2022
In question, in particular, the road safety problems posed by these small cars. According to the town hall, which first tried to regulate their use by forcing operators to sign a charter of good conduct, scooters – self-service and individual – were involved last year in accidents that caused 3 dead and 459 injured.
Their opponents also highlight the nuisance suffered in the public space, with many machines cluttering the sidewalks, despite the creation of reserved places. Some also point to the ecological impact of this mode of transport which, at first glance, is sustainable but which, just a few years ago, used vehicles with a very short lifespan, sometimes even limited to a month.
A hoped-for report on self-service bicycles
The three operators still present in Paris did not wait until the last day to withdraw their scooters, which had become increasingly rare over the month of August. Scooters which essentially should leave for new horizons. Those of Tier Mobility are heading for other cities in the Ile-de-France region but also for Germany and Poland, two countries in which the German-based company has around a hundred locations.
This German company is banking on the development of its self-service bicycle service, in addition to the Vélib’ offer. This is also the case for its competitors, Lime and Dott. “After the withdrawal of our 5,000 scooters, we hope that our users will refer to our bikes”declares the latter operator, which has so far proposed, on its application, to use either of these means of transport. “We are in discussion with the town hall of Paris to be able to exceed in the future the threshold of 5,000 bicycles which has been imposed on us. »
Fifty jobs cut at Dott
In the meantime, Dott is completing these days the closure of its operational center in Wissous (Essonne), which was entirely devoted to the maintenance of its Parisian scooters. “We are putting in place a job protection plan for around fifty employees”says the company.
The non-renewal of contracts with operators will not mark the total disappearance of these two-wheelers, whose authorized speed has been limited to 25 km / h since 2019. Everyone is free to use their own electric scooter. Quick to seize the opportunity, the Leboncoin site has also had a street art-style affixed to the ground, in around twenty emblematic locations in the capital, a QR code referring to its some 22,000 classified ads for the sale of scooters. occasion.
New rental formulas
Other actors are also seeking to occupy the vacant space. Volt, specializing in electric two-wheelers and single-wheelers, is launching a (more or less) long-term rental service, for example, from €19 per half-day. Scooters must be borrowed and returned to the store.
Elsewhere in France (Toulouse, Nice, Villeurbanne, etc.) and around the world (New York, London, Rome, etc.), other cities have chosen to ban self-service scooters.
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