Parisians have said enough: 9 out of 10 voted no to rental scooters, those that anyone, without supervision, without the possibility of fines or being tracked, can rent for a few pennies, then circulating on the streets, on the sidewalks, with traffic lights reds and parking everywhere. From September, the first capital in Europe, Paris will ban the motorized “trottinette”. For some years now, scooters have conquered the streets of the French capital, but the lack of rules has ended up exasperating Parisians. Which – at the time of voting and despite a massive social campaign by the “trottinette” rental companies – gave birth to a real plebiscite.
Miriam Segato’s accident
What made the residents of the capital react so sharply – already grappling with ever-changing road traffic and increasingly heavy traffic jams – it wasn’t just the scooters that whiz undisturbed against traffic, with red traffic lights, sowing terror on the sidewalks crowded with passers-by. Unfortunately, the continuous accidents, the injured and unfortunately the victims also contributed in a decisive way. Like Miriam Segato, the Italian from Capalbio overwhelmed and killed on June 14, 2021 on the quais of the Seine by a scooter that whizzed by with two girls on board with impunity. They didn’t even stop to help her.
How did the referendum come about?
The socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, had personally spoken out for the prohibition of free rental but had then called the consultation, pledging to respect the wishes of the Parisians. Now, if the pledge is met, the Ville Lumière will become the first European city to completely ban scooter rental. Hidalgo had insisted on her opposition to continuing with the free rental given the exponential increase in recent years of accidents involving scooters. And despite the fears of the more than 800 employees of the three main operators of the sector active in the city – Dott, Lime and Tier – who fear for their jobs.
With a daily panorama of thousands of wild scooters racing on the sidewalks, others darting despite the red light terrorizing the crossing pedestrians, the mayor also announced an ad hoc “road code” against wild driving not only of scooters, but also of bicycles and assisted bikes, whose entry into force is expected by the end of the summer.
Government against the stop
The government of Elisabeth Borne, on the contrary, had shown itself to be decidedly opposed to the drastic ban on scooters, wanting rather to promote better regulation of the so-called urban “small mobility”. In recent days, the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, a loyalist of Emmanuel Macron, presented a national plan which aims at a “pacification of the public space” with stricter rules. “If well organised, well adjusted, electric scooters can be a chance,” said Beaune.