April 03, 2023
90% of Parisians have voted against keeping rental scooters on their streets in the referendum organized by the City Council chaired by Anne Hidalgo. Although the result is not legally binding, Mayor Hidalgo has publicly committed to respecting its result –“I have promised to respect the result of the vote”, he declared yesterday -, so it is to be expected that on September 1, the public scooter rental systems will disappear from Paris. This measure, however, does not affect the use of private scooters.
Since their appearance in 2018, rental scooters – some 15,000 currently from three companies (Lime, Dott and Tier) – have been considered by some as a way to get around easily for little money, while others consider them dangerous vehicles, causing accidents and who have been involved in numerous collisions with pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. In fact, Mayor Hidalgo has considered them on several occasions as dangerous, not very ecological and a source of conflict.